This Doom Of Ours
by gods-own
Summary: For there are far worse things out in the darkness of space than mere machines and now they wake and all we can hear our their screams. all material contained within is the property of Bioware and id Software Enjoy. CHAPTER 11 IS UP
1. Chapter 1

[ ** _Codex entry: Council Accountability Committee_** ]

First founded in 900CE soon after the Krogan Rebellions the CAC was established as an investigative body to examine harmful accusations levelled against various departments of the Citadel government for alleged criminal activity undertaken during the insurrection; subsequent investigations led to the eventual prosecution and imprisonment of at least twenty individuals on a variety of charges ranging from bribery and extortion to much more serious allegations of state-sponsored espionage; in the subsequent centuries the CAC roll remained relatively the same while their sister organization the department of special tactics and reconnaissance took on a more proactive and some might argue more visible approach to crime, as a result the CAC has relatively vanished from public view only being seen when they announce their findings on cases they are currently investigating.

[ ** _Codex entry: Council Accountability Committee: Sub-entry: Office of Special Investigations_** ]

Little is known of this extremely secretive branch of the Citadel government, originally believed to be a sub-division of the spectres the Office of Special Investigations or OSI for short was revealed to be in actuality under the authority of the director of the CAC and is believed to be tasked with investigating only the most serious of federal crimes within Council space.

* * *

12/5/2183 CE

 _1800 Standard Galactic Time_

"Tonight on CNN at six we look at the stories that are currently topping the public forums, but before we get into that we have a special report on the seeming tragic fate that befell the colonists on the planet Trebin in the Antaeus system, for our listeners who may not know the exact circumstances leading up to the event, communications were lost with the colony more than two galactic standard weeks ago, subsequent investigations by independent parties revealed the complete and utter destruction of the human settlements." the news anchor vanished to be replaced with a picture of a burnt and blackened landscape surrounding a noticeably large crater.

"The Council Accountability Committee has released a statement saying that all evidence points towards a critical failure located within the colonies main reactor which triggered the massive detonation, the CAC also goes on to calm that it was the colonists themselves through the use of unlicensed and illegal modifications that caused the meltdown..." the rest of the news announcement was cut short by Councilor Sparatus as he terminated the feed with a flash of his omni-tool.

"It looks like the general public is buying the cover story we created." commented the turian dryly as he took a long sip of his drink. "Which I for one am deeply grateful for"

"We all are." countered Councilor Tevos as she glanced over at her Salarian colleague "How is the extranet handling this information?"

"As well as can be expected." replied Valern coldly as he slipped into a bored tone "Most of the major news outlets are running our version of events and even those that aren't are no closer to finding out the truth."

"Good, let's keep it that way." grumbled Sparatus as he glanced at the fourth member of this little gathering. "Onto more pressing matters, how is the current investigation going Director Shore?" the human head of the CAC remained silent for long moment as he took a long drag on his cigarette before answering.

"I've got teams combing through the digital paper trail as we speak, it won't be long before we know exactly what happened."

"I think we should be more focused on preventing such an incident from happening again in the near future." stated the asari pointedly as she glared at the man. "Do we know how they managed to come into contact with such an artefact?"

"From the footage that we recovered from our operatives' helmet we suspect that it was brought in from off world, probably in a cargo shipment." explained the director.

"Then we should turn all our resources to finding the source of this contamination."

"I second that" snarled Sparatus as he agreed with Councillor Valern. "The last thing we need is a repeat of the Kyleios 4 incident." the council members as one flinched in recognition.

"What a nightmare that turned out to be." sighed Tevos as she ran a hand across her face. "Ten thousand people dead and a shortage of thruster fuel across the eastern half of the Attican Traverse that last for nearly three years."

"That was not Director Shores fault, it was his predecessors!" countered Sparatus sharply as he came to the man's defense. "In the nearly two decades that he's been in charge of the CAC there has never been such a severe security breach."

"I wasn't accusing Mr. Shore of anything" countered the matron evenly as she took a sip of her wine. "I'm just concerned about the ramifications of a large scale outbreak."

"I won't allow that to happen." declared the human firmly as he took on a resolute tone. "We'll know where the ship came from soon and then the OSI will be sent in to take care of the problem."

"I take it that you'll be using that _particular_ operative." countered Valern coldly.

"Thank the spirits that we have that man, even if he's completely out of his goddamn mind." the turian said with a grimace.

"I wouldn't say that he's insane, just very dedicated to his mission." replied Shore evenly.

"That's one way to describe it." whispered Tevos as she went pale.

"We're getting off topic." stated the salarian representative sharply as he took control the conversation. "We need to keep this matter as quiet as possible, if the media get hold of this they may make a connection to previous events and then everyone will start asking questions." he turned extremely pensive "And I for one am not going to explain to them where argent energy comes from."

"It won't come to that." reassured Director Shore as he took another long drag of his cigarette. "Operative DG has never failed, all we need to do is make sure that he gets there as quickly and as quietly as possible."

"I think I know exactly which ship you need" chuckled Sparatus as he grinned evilly.

* * *

 _A few days later:_

"Captain Anderson, we've got an encrypted message coming through the secure line, do you want me to divert it to your personal data pad?" the man in charge of the Normandy glanced up from talking to his rather chatty helmsman to glance at his chief navigation officer.

"Thank you Pressyly, make sure transfer it to my pad and then scrub it from the system." the man saluted before turning sharply away as he caught sight of a rather unmistakable individual makings his way up the command deck towards them.

"Captain."

"Specter Kryik" the pair exchanged polite nods. "Is there something I can do for you?" the turian shook his head.

"Just having a look around your ship, she is extremely impressive." the veteran alliance officer raised a single eyebrow in mild surprise.

"I would have thought that a turian spectre as well-known as you would have been keeping an eye on this particular cross species venture." the agent let out a small laugh.

"I know this will come as a bit of a surprise to most humans but not every turian is a fan of military ships, I myself prefer a good piece of classical literature, I found Moby Dick by Herman Melvill to be a fascinating read."

"Really, I always like Chaucer myself." Nihlus seemed actually interested for once.

"Is that so? I'll have to look that particular human writer up when I get the chance." the conversation was rather unfortunately interrupted by a quiet ping from the captains' omni-tool telling him that the data transfer had finished.

"I do apologise agent but I need to read this." the turian waved away the apology calmly.

"I completely understand. If you need me I'll be looking over the Normandy's stealth systems."

"I doubt it will be anything important, probably just the ambassador requesting an update on our schedule." muttered the man tiredly as he excused himself.

He couldn't be more wrong.

* * *

"Commander Shepard please report to the captains quarters at once, Agent Nihlus do the same." the two individuals in question raised their eyebrows and eye ridge plates in silent confusion.

"You wanted to see me Captain?" stated the redhead as she came strolling into the privet space.

"Take a seat" instructed the middle age man as he point towards an empty chair.

"I take it that the message wasn't a scheduled request." comment the turian drily as he stepped in over the threshold.

"It wasn't." replied Anderson grimly as he held the pad up for both of them to see. "Unfortunately, I wish I could tell you more than the basic details but apparently I do not have the necessary security clearance." he held it out to the spectre "Perhaps you'll have better luck."

"What did it tell you?" questioned the agent as he took on a serious tone. "Did something happen on Eden Prime?"

"Why, what's on Eden Prime?" enquired Shepard not particularly liking being left out of the conversation. "Captain?" her superior grimaced.

"A construction team unearthed some ruins on the planet a few weeks ago, judging from their construction they seem to be Prothean in origin, both the Alliance and the Citadel Council are concerned about the security of the site, we were supposed to use the cover of this dry run to land near the dig site, retrieve the suspected prothean beacon and take it to a safe location for study."

"While at the same time easing you into the idea of becoming a council spectre." the agent glanced up from the data pad, only to notice the looks of complete and utter disbelief that were plastered over his associate's faces. "To blunt?" he stated.

"Just a bit," groined the captain as he ran a hand through his hair. "but as I said that 'was' the plan."

"Am I no longer being considered for the roll?" queried the women a slight note of disappointment creeping into her voice.

"Don't worry Commander this has nothing to do with you. Besides after your actions on Elysium it would be hard not to consider you for the roll." reassured the turian as he finished entering his personal security code, it took him a few seconds to scan over the information contained with, but after he did all the smug hummer vanished from his faceplates. "Have you read this?" he questioned sharply.

"What parts of it I could." replied Anderson "What does it say?"

"To Captain Anderson, Commanding Officer of the SSV Normandy, you are hereby ordered to report with your ship to docking bay 422 on the citadel, where you will take onboard a Council operative and transport him to the Cartagena station in the Nemean Abyss, upmost secrecy is required for this undertaking, after the operative has been delivered you stand one kilometer off until signalled for retrieval, once this is done return to the citadel, it goes without question that the operatives directions should be treated as if they came from the Citadel Council, do not ask questions and complete your mission, its signed by Councilor Sparatus and co-signed by Ambassador Udina." Anderson let out a long sigh as he poured himself a drink from his personal stash.

"What do you think it means?" he questioned.

"That something extremely serious is going on." replied the turian grimly as he ran his gaze over the message a second time. "That can be the only explanation for ignoring a Prothean beacon like this."

"I'm more interested in this operative we're supposed to retrieve." commented Shepard drily. "It sounds like another spectre, but it could be also be STG, what do you think Nihlus?" the spectre had gone strangely silent as his eyes remained fixed on the text. "Nihlus?"

"It wouldn't be STG they have their own ship for this kind of thing." muttered the spectre darkly "It could be another spectre."

"But you don't think it is?" interrupted the commander.

"No, the wording is wrong, we're normally referred to as agents in official dispatches, not operatives." he jerked a talon down at the glowing display. "I can only think of one other organization that would fit the description here."

"Who?" demanded Anderson.

"The Office of Special Investigations."

"Shit." the female officer glanced at the two men uneasily.

"I'm lost" stated Shepard in mild confusion. "Who are we talking about?"

"Look them up in your galactic codex." instructed the captain tiredly as he took a swig of his whiskey.

"Basically." commented Nihlus drily "They're federal investigators empowered to find and prosecute those guilty of breaking the law in Citadel Space."

"But I thought you spectres did that." countered the woman.

"We tend to be rather more proactive when it comes to stopping crime then the OSI and their parent organization the CAC, they tend to only get called in to investigate after a crime has happened."

"Which kinds of points towards the fact that something serious is going on." muttered Anderson darkly.

"Indeed." the three of them fell silent as they considered the developing situation.

"Well there's no point in worrying about it." stated Shepard evenly as she rose to her feet. "We have our orders so we better get to it, we can try and figure out what's going on when we get to the Citadel."

"I second that." commented the spectre as he too rose to his feet. "We can't do anything about this until we pick up this operative, and even then I doubt we'll get anything out of him, the OSI members I've met don't tend to be the chattiest of people."

"Sounds lovely." grumbled the Captain as finished his drink. "Well I'll leave the two of you better get acquainted, I have the fun task of informing the crew of our course change."

"Just tell them that we're going to the Citadel for some specialist supplies, I'm sure they'll buy it."

"Let's hope so, it's your idea after all Shepard." chuckled the middle aged man as he ushered them out.

"That's cold Captain, even for you." all she got for an answer was the bellowing laughter of her superior ringing in her ears.

* * *

The trip to the citadel was, for all extent and purposes extremely dull, with only the crew constantly whispering conspiracy theories, the main source of which turned out to be, surprise, surprise, Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, their pilot.

"I'm just saying spectres are bad news, they don't just tag along on shakedown runs to observe and what kind of shakedown run is this anyway, I've been on more stressful walks to the bathroom in the morning."

"We can't all have two foot long dick Joker." commented Shepard drily, earning her a spluttering snort from the pilot as she reclined in one of the seats at the front of the command deck. "Some of us have to settle for less." she winked playfully at the biotic member of her ground team

"And there she is ladies and gentlemen, our executive officer and the pride of the alliance navy, Commander Jane Shepard." grumbled the lieutenant as he shook his head at his commanding officers colorful choice of language.

"Damn straight." declared the woman as she held up her fist in salute. "And don't you forget it." the three of them let out muted laughter as they desperately attempted to avoided Navigator Presslys attention as he did his rounds.

"Citadel Control to SSV Normandy, come in SSV Normandy." an asari voice barreled out of the cockpits speakers quickly putting an end to the trios festivities.

"SSV Normandy responding Citadel Control." stated the helmsman as he quickly switched to a professional tone.

"Good to hear from you Normandy, sending you your designated flight path now, we hope you enjoy your stay"

"Much appreciated Citadel Control, Normandy over and out" the pilot glanced up from his controls. "And that my friends is how it's done"

"Be sure to buy her dinner first Jeff" chucked Shepard as she got out of her seat. "I bet go inform the captain that we've reached our destination"

"Was it me or did the commander seem distracted?" questioned Joker as he quietly glanced at the retreating figures back.

"Maybe one of your crazy theory's are right for once" countered Alenko as he took a pot-shot at his long time friend. "Stranger things have happened"

"Hay!"

* * *

"Is that our guy?" muttered Shepard quietly as the three high ranking individuals wait patiently outside the cargo bay.

"looks like it" muttered Anderson darkly as he court site of the heavy armoured figure striding across the dry dock towards them, large duff bag in hand.

"What kind of armour is that?" murmured the Commander as she ran an approving eye over the man's green plate work.

"Its praetor armour" stated the veteran officer grimly " I've only ever seen archive footage, I didn't think it ever got out of the R&D thesis"

"Why, was it not there good?" Questioned Shepard with interested.

"The exacted opposite, it was ground braking in nearly every field" admitted the man, a note of sadness slipping into his voice.

"Then why wasn't it produced?" countered Nihlus.

"Because the development team and all of the prototypes were on Jump Zero when it exploded back in 59" explained Anderson as he grimaced at the memory "The Alliance top brass said they couldn't justify the astronomical cost of restarting the project from scratch so they scrapped it"

"Interesting, I wonder how OSI got their hands on one" whispered the spectre as the armoured figure drew level with them.

"Captain." the voice that echoed out of the suits speakers was low and rasping as if the man inside wasn't used to talking with people.

"Operative." the captain held out a hand in polite greeting, only for it to be ignored as the imposing man simple stepped past the officer and boarded the waiting vassal.

"Not a very talkative one is he." muttered Shepard unhappily as she cast a disapproving glare at the man's back.

"Not from what I've heard no." agreed the turian as he took on a grim air.

"You know this man?" countered Anderson sharply.

"I know _of_ him." corrected the agent "He has a bit of a reputation in my field of expertise."

"A good or bad reputation?" muttered the Commander as she noticed the look of uneasy that surrounded the spectre.

"The kind that makes you rather concerned about what we're being sent into." answered Nihlus grimly as the three of them followed after the operative.

"Well that's not reassuring." whispered the redhead.

"What do expect from a guy whose call sign is 'Doom Guy'." retorted the turian as the hatch closed behind them.

* * *

The next few days turned out to be extremely dull, the excitement of an actual live assignment had quickly worn off for most of the crew once they realised that they we're nothing more than a glorified taxi services for the reclusive figure that isolate himself down in the cargo hold.

"That guy gives me the creeps." grumbled Joker over a mouth full of mass potato. "You can't tell me you don't feel the same way." the woman whipped a hand over her face.

"Say it don't spray it Moreau." muttered his superior as she glared at him over her bowl of noodles.

"Sorry Commander." chuckled the pilot nervously as he rubbed the back of his head in rather obvious embarrassment. "Won't happen again."

"Good and to answer your question; no I don't find our 'Guest' creepy. A massive pain in my ass yes, creepy no."

"You're just pissed that he straight up ignored you the last two days." chuckled Alenko as he dropped down into the vacant space next to her, his plate nearly overflowing with food.

"It should be illegal for someone to eat that much food without gaining weight" grumbled the woman jealously.

"You're changing the subject." teased the biotic lightly as he took a massive bite out of his sandwich.

"Ok, so maybe I'm a bit pissed that he ignored me. But in my defense I was only asking him about the weapons he'd brought with him." that court Jokers attention.

"Is it true that he uses one of those old chemical propellant assault rifles?" he questioned eagerly.

"It's more like a light machine gun, it just looks like an assault rifle." commented Shepard lazily. "I looked it up yesterday; it's one of those old MG98-Enforcers. They were the last propellant weapons ever mass produced before the Alliance brought in the M-7 lancer line of assault rifles."

"So it's an antique." snorted the helmsman. "That's good to know."

"An antique that sends ten rounds the size of your thumb down range every second." stated the redhead evenly. "I don't care what the manufactures say; there isn't a personal shield system in existence that can stop that."

"And there goes my confidence" muttered Joker as the three of them court site of the captain exiting his cabin.

"Flight Lieutenant Moreau you're needed up in the cockpit." stated their commanding officer as he drew level with the table. "The rest of you to your stations. We're half an hour out from our target." he raised a hand to stop his second in command. "Not you commander your coming with me"

"Yes sir." the pair moved towards the cargo bay.

"Let's see if we can finally get some answers." muttered the middle age man as they exited into the lofty space.

"Just in the nick of time Captain, now if you don't mind can you tell him to let me go?" wheezed the spectre as he found himself daggling by his neck a good few inches off the deck.

"Drop him marine!" bellowed Anderson as he stormed across the hold "That's an order!" it was like a switch was flicked in the man's head and no sooner had the words left the captains mouth then the spectre found himself on the floor, gasping for breath.

"Explain yourself marine!" the helmeted face turned to stare pointedly at the pair.

"Keep him away from my equipment, I won't be held responsible for my actions if you don't." warned the operative coldly as he dragged the strap of the assault rifle over his armored shoulder before grabbing what looked like an old solid slug combat shotgun from the nearby workbench. "How far out are we?"

"Twenty minutes at most." replied the captain, the operative nodded.

"Have your pilot hold his position at five hundred meters from the target." the heavily armored man fixed the trio with an unseen stare. "Under no circumstances are you to attempt contact with the station." the man glared at the spectre. "Agent Kryik you are ordered to enforce the councils health organizations quarantine regulations once I board the space station."

"I understand" muttered the turain as he took on a cold tone. "Good luck with your mission" the operative nodded in silent acknowledgment before heading towards the waiting elevator.

"What the hell was that all about!" demanded Shepard once the imposing figure had vanished from view.

"I was interested in having a look at my colleagues other equipment since he was wearing such exotic armor, I do believe he didn't take kindly to the decision."

"You think?" countered the woman sharply. "If we hadn't arrived when we did he would have snapped your neck like a twig!"

"I have to agree with the commander, not only did you put yourself in a compromising position you all also forced me to intervene in a cross department matter, which is something that I would like to avoid in future"

"I've learned my lesson captain." chuckled Nihlus as he ran his fingers over his aching throat. "That'll be the last time I get court going through a superiors belongings."

"What, he out ranks you, I thought that spectres didn't answer to anyone but the council?" questioned Shepard mild confusion.

"Under normal circumstances we don't, but in the rare occasions when the two departments collaborate its standard protocol that the OSI operative has seniority due to it originally being his assignment."

"And yet you still attempted to antagonize him." muttered the captain disbelieving as he ran a hand down over his face. "Are you trying to get me sectioned 8 agent because it's working" the remark earned him a grin from both the spectre and his second in command. "But we seem to be getting off topic a bit, what was this about a quarantine?" the humor vanished to be replaced with grim resignation.

"Simple version is that nothing is allowed to leave the infected area unless the individual in charge approves it."

"What happens if someone tries?" enquired the woman, already fearing the answer.

"We have council authority for a reason commander, nothing and nobody leaves that station alive."

"This is going to be a long day." muttered Anderson quietly.

* * *

"We are in view of Cartagena station, Jez she looks she's been through hell, are you sure you want to go in there sir?" enquired the helmsman nervously as he glanced away from the holographic display, he wasn't exaggerating either, long streams of what looked like atmosphere were leaking from the central control tower and the habitation ring was totally blacked out with only the occasional flashes from the external lighting on top of the three outer towers to hint at its presence.

"You have your orders Joker." instructed the captain firmly as he came to a rest next to the pilot. "Get us with in five hundred meters of the target and put in to a stationary orbit."

"Understood Captain." murmured the flight lieutenant uneasily as he turned his attention to the ships controls. "ETA two minutes." Anderson turned his gaze back towards the slowly spinning space station.

"I take it you're going to do an EVA to get on board." stated the ranking officer as he glanced at the operative.

"Yes."

"Piece of advice son, don't miss." the man let out a dismissive snort as he stepped into the airlock.

"Let's get this done." and with that he was gone.

* * *

 **Well folks what do you think, I throw this together to see if it was possible to write a compiling crossover story and yes I know there isn't any fighting in this but I designed it as an intro of sorts so don't take get to angry.**

 **Please let me know in the review section what you all think and if you want it continued, I can't promise that if I do decide to take this on that I'll start writing it right away as I have over projects that I wish to focus on.**

 **Gods-own.**


	2. Chapter 2

**THIS DOOM OF OURS**

Chapter: 2

.

* * *

"Time check." the helmsman glanced at his instruments.

"Twenty two hundred galactic standard time Captain." the man nodded quietly as he glanced away from the glowing hologram to stared coldly at the other individuals gathered around the CIC display.

"He's been out of radio contact for nearly an hour," Muttered Shepard quietly as she gazed at the ghostly rendition of the space station that spun slowly just over half a mile off their starboard sized. "It's unsettling." the remark earned her a low chuckle from the Turian that was standing just a few feet away.

"That kind of comes with the territory when dealing with the Office of Special Investigations" declared Nihlus sagely as he took a long sip of his dextro coffee. "They're not the most sociable of departments."

"So we've seen." muttered the woman unhappily. "Is this something I should get used to if I'm going to be a spectre?" her assumed mentor grinned evilly.

"You have no idea." he turned to look away as a thoughtful expression flashed across his face. "Captain Anderson, correct me if I'm wrong but don't all Alliance soldiers have built-in cameras for after action analysis?"

"We have them for other reasons, but yes you are correct, why?" Anderson asked suspiciously.

"Well this 'Praetor' armour I believe you called it, was designed to meet Alliance regulations, so it wouldn't be so far-fetched to believe that it too had such a function." the captain scowled at the Turian as he pieced together what was being suggested.

"You're suggesting that we hack the operatives cam-feed, are you out of your mind Nihlus!" growled the man sharply. "I have explicit instructions not to interfere from both the Citadel Council and Alliance Command, I won't disregard that just so you can satisfy your curiosity, am I clear?"

"Crystal" replied the agent coldly; unfortunately any future conversation was quickly sidelined as the vessel shook ever so slightly underfoot.

"Joker what just happened?" barked Anderson as he stormed towards the cockpit, the others in tow.

"One of the habitat ring control towers just exploded, the whole station is barely keeping stationary orbit." explained the pilot distractedly as he hastily manoeuvred the Normandy around the rapidly expanding clouds of debris that surged out into space.

"Any indication for why it happened?" questioned Nihlus sharply as he glanced out the front window at the doomed installation.

"None that I could tell, standard scans didn't pick up anything out of the ordinary in the moments leading up to the explosion, there was a spike in the stations argent energy levels a few minutes before, but that could have been anything."

"Do we still have a reading on the operative?" Demanded Shepard as she elbowed her way into the conversation, "He should still be broadcasting an IFF signal on secure frequencies."

"He was but with all that background radiation now floating all over the place after the explosion we'd have better luck just trying to physically look for him." the commander let out a frustrated snort.

"You know the operative's reputation spectre, do you think he's still active?" commented the Captain his gaze never leaving the damaged construct.

"I wouldn't count him out yet." murmured the Turian thoughtfully as he mulled the question over in his mind. "But the lack of communication as the commander said is worrying and judging from the state of the station we can't assume that he escaped unscathed."

"You want to investigate." state the human pointedly. "Is that wise, the whole installation is under quarantine for a reason, this Doom Guy doesn't seem to be the kind of individual that would declare such things if they weren't necessary." the Spectre nodded.

"And normally I would wholeheartedly agree with you Captain, but as it is we can't guarantee the exact location of the OSI operative. On my authority as a Council spectre, I'm overriding your orders. We're going in." the special forces veteran scowled bitterly.

"If anything happens to my crew I'll hold you fully responsible Nihlus." he threatened.

"If anything does happen then the Council will have my head on a platter, but I'd rather go through that then inform them of the loss of one of their favourite operative's." declared Nihlus coldly as he jabbed a talon at Shepard. "The Commander and I will EVA over to one of nearby access hatches. That will limit the danger to your vessel."

"Much appreciated." sighed the Captain as he ran a hand over his tired eyes. "The two of you better go get geared up. Joker, try and contact the operative again, maybe we can sort this thing out before things get even more out of hand."

"I wouldn't bet money on that skipper." snorted the Pilot, only to yelp in indignation as his commanding officer slapped him lightly on the back of the head.

* * *

"Alright double-check all your seals, we don't know what waiting for us on the station, but judging from what we've seen it's nothing good." instructed the Turian as he checked his equipment.

"Don't have to tell me twice." countered Shepard distractedly as she picked up a katana series shotgun before slotting it into the spot on her lower back.

"Your record said you favoured mid to long range combat." Nihlus said with mild interest as he cradled a matte black assault rifle in his talons.

"I do, but only a dead man deliberately limits their ability to fight in the field." countered the woman coldly.

"Smart decision, who taught you that?" the Commander paused ever so slightly before continuing.

"I learned the hard way." she muttered before jamming her helmet down over her head.

"Don't we all?" declared the Spectre as he quickly followed suit. "But that's what makes us stand out from the rest." he added.

"Because we lived?" snorted Shepard dismissive.

"Because we lived." replied the Turian.

* * *

The spacewalk was unusually unsettling, normally there was always some level of uncertainty when doing EVA but training and experience usually carried the day, this time, this time something was different, there was an almost indescribable pressure seemingly seeping out of the ruined structure in front of them.

"ETA thirty seconds." stated Nihlus as the pair drifted towards the nearest airlock. "Brace for impact."

"Be advised we still cannot establish communications with operative 'Doom Guy' we don't know if it's due to interference or something else, be extremely cautious." informed Captain Anderson over the team channels, Joker's laughing over the operatives' call sign just barely audible in the background.

"Acknowledged Captain, Shepard out" came the reply as the two figures gently came to rest either side of the sealed portal.

"Standard two man enter and clear scenario, you ready Commander?" questioned the Turian evenly.

"I was born ready." countered the woman as she raised her shotgun in cold anticipation.

"Good, entering the airlock in three...two...one." the hatch pulled apart to reveal the relatively cramped confines of the inner chamber. "Go, go, go!" the two specialists funnelled themselves into narrow space.

"Airlock secure." declared the human over the com-link.

"I've got positive readings on my omni-tool for atmosphere on the other side of the door." commented the spectre coldly as he glanced over towards his teammate. "Do you want to risk it?"

"On a station that's currently under quarantine, no thank you." the remark earned her an approving nod from the veteran agent.

"Good, I didn't either." there came a ping from somewhere above them as pressure equalized. "Look sharp."

"Understood" the pair level their weapons at the entranceway. "Scans?"

"Nothing on close range, background radiation is screwing with anything beyond that." growled the Turian coldly.

"So we're going in blind." muttered Shepard grimly as she pressed the release button on the waiting access panel. "Just great."

* * *

It's was so much worse than either of them could possibly imagine, blood and broken bodies lay strewn in rotting clumps all over the place as the two agents inched their way through the horrifying carnage.

"Spirits, what is going on in this station?" grimaced Nihlus as he gingerly poked a dead asari with a booted foot.

"Good thing we can't smell anything in these things, this place must reek to high heaven." declared the Commander as she glanced around at the gore soaked landscape. "Jesus, there's blood all over the place." she sidestepped around something that had once been human before it had been ripped to shreds. "The Captain needs to be informed about this."

"I've been trying for the last few minutes." admitted the Turian grimly as he flashed a light into a darkened room. "All I'm getting is static." Shepard flinched at the remark.

"That can't be good."

"Agreed." the pair suddenly fell silent as the unmistakable sound of shuffling footsteps cut through the stillness.

"I've got movement, fifty meters, twelfth o'clock closing!" snapped the spectre as a low moaning sound preceded the arrival of hostiles.

"I got a bad feeling about this." shouted the commander as multiple silhouettes could be seen plastered across a nearby wall, she couldn't be more right as dozens of figures came stumbling around a corner.

"Stay where you are we don't -" the warning was drowned out by a deafening wall of noise as the mob of hostiles spotted them.

"Fucking shoot them!" roared Shepard as she started blasting away at the surging mass of bodies that came surging down the corridor, her companion quickly followed suit though with significantly less success as round after round ripped through the frenzied attackers with little to no marked impact.

"Fall back right now!" shouted the agent as the pair backpedalled down the way they'd came.

"What the hell are those things!?" demanded the Commander as the two individuals snapped of a few more shot, with only the shotgun doing any real damage as it blew off what could have once been a Turian's lower jaw in a shower of blue gore.

"We can find out later, right now shut up and shoot!" snapped the woman as she blasted of one of the attackers legs, sending it to the ground.

"Side room on our right, fall back and bottleneck them!" shouted Nihlus as he poured fire into a twisted asari's face until it disintegrated under the force of the impacts.

"Acknowledged." answered the woman as she ducked under his line of fire and barrelled into the poorly lit space. "Close it!" she bellowed as she saw one of the ghoulish assailants bearing down on them.

"What do you think I'm doing?" snapped the spectre as he slammed a fist into the emergency override and not a moment too late as the door slammed shut with a metallic thud, crushing an unfortunate human in between the panelling and sending crimson fluid flooding out in all directions as the pair slowly edged away from the sealed portal.

"What the fuck is going on?" snapped Shepard angry as she glared cold fury at her stunned teammate.

"How the hell do I know?" countered the Turian irritably as he sagged down onto a nearby table to catch his breath. "The only person that can tell us is the OSI operative and spirits knows if he's still alive." the pair jumped in surprise as the door suddenly shuddered ever so slightly, the pounding of numerous fists sounding finally making their way through.

"Is that going to hold?" questioned the woman quietly as she readied her shotgun.

"For the time being." muttered her colleague as he wiped the gore from his helmets faceplate. "But I don't really want to hang around to find out."

"Well unless you've got a better plan we're stuck in this glorified closet." grumbled the Commander as she glanced about at their improvised bolthole, it wasn't what one would call spacious.

"Look up." muttered Nihlus as he jerked a talon at the ceiling.

"A ceiling vent seriously?" stated Shepard in disbelief. "I think you've been playing too many holo games in your spare time spectre." the conversation halted as the door shook once more.

"Do you have any better ideas?" challenged the Turian sharply as he dragged the workbench that he'd been leaning on across the narrow room.

"Not really, but we better make this quick our friends seem to know that something's going on." and she was right the soul shuddering wails that echoed out from beyond the dented plating seemed to intensify as the shambling hoard picked up on the distinctive sound of movement on their side.

"Noted." muttered the agent quietly as he quickly clambered up to reach the sealed grate.

"How does it look?" Question the Commander as she glanced up at her colleague with professional interest. "Can you get it open?"

"I can, but it's going to take a few moments, these things are normal locked up pretty tight to stop children from crawling around inside of them." stated Nihlus distractedly as he pulled a small pry bar from his belt pouch.

"Neat little thing you've got there." stated Shepard interestedly as she focused on the piece of metal clasped in the turians clawed hand. "Where can I get one of those?"

"Standard piece of a sensible Turians survival kit." chuckled the spectre coldly as he jammed it into a barely visible gap. "It's also a good close combat weapon in a pinch."

"I like a man with a versatile tool." Sheppard said with a mischievous smile, earning a chuckle from her alien companion.

"Flirting in a life or death situation, thought they only did that in the vids." The Spectre said.

"Just trying to ease the tension." Was the humans reply before something struck her, metaphorically speaking. "Is everything you carry a weapon of some kind?" enquired Sheppard.

"First thing you learn as a spectre." declared Nihlus sagely over the sound of wrenching metal as he dug the implement in deeper. "Everything is a weapon; I once saw a Salarian colleague of mine beat someone to death with a piece of frozen fruit."

"Are you serious?" Spluttered the woman stunned disbelief.

"As a heart attack." came the reply.

"Damn," the Commander lost her humorous tone. "Kind of wish we had that piece of fruit right about now" she glanced down at her own weapon. "It would probably do a better job of killing these things then my crap weapon at this point."

"Do you know about ballistic trauma Commander?" the question earned him an unhappy glare.

"I'm an N7 operative, I think I know a thing or two about ballistic trauma." she responded sharply.

"Ok let me rephrase that then, do you know about the mechanics behind ballistic trauma?"

"We were given in depth medical training during training if that's what you mean" stated Shepard in mild confusion. "What are you getting at?"

"The two largest causes of death from ballistic injuries comes in two forms, blood loss and tissue displacement due to energy transfusion." commented the Turian distractedly as he let out a low grunt as he managed to get a hand into the widened gap. "Historically deaths from the round themselves are, statistically, relatively small." he let out a low sigh.

"Unfortunately modern firearms have been moving away from that format for some time now, mass effect weaponry have many advantages but stopping power is not amongst them." he jerked a talon at his rifle. "Take my assault rifle for example, yes it's extremely accurate and yes it pretty much has unlimited ammunition, but you sacrifice lethality; also have to worry about overheating the rifle." the Commander blinked in surprise.

"It still seems pretty lethal to me." she countered.

"In some regards it is, but as you saw those things shrug it off until I started aiming at their heads. Do you want to know why?"

"Ballistic trauma?"

"Give the girl a prize." came the reply. "Modern mass effect weapons do very little collateral damage to their target, they normally counter this by allowing their user a higher degree of accuracy to target vital areas to maximize impact, but they still suffer from massive over penetration from the rounds themselves since they're the size of a grain of sand, which is why you normally need several hits to bring down an assailant." the special forces soldier nodded in dawning understanding, she'd remembered numerous times when active hostiles had taken significantly more damage to down than had been anticipated, was this what Nihlus talking about.

"Was that why that OSI operative was using that chemical weaponry?" she enquired as a resounding thud indicated the panel removal.

"Because he knew that those things would be resistant to mass effect technology?"

"That's my guess." came the reply as the spectre started shedding unnecessary equipment.

"And before you ask yes it does open up a whole host of other questions, but right now I think we should really get moving."

"It has gone strangely quiet now that you mention it." added Shepard uneasily as she slowly inched away from the sealed doorway.

"Shepard?"

"Yeah?"

"Get in the vent." she didn't argue as a split-second late there came a primeval roar from the over side of the access hatch as something truly monstrous slammed into it, warping the metalwork and splitting the seal as a massive arm coated in brick thick muscle slowly forced its way into the narrow space.

"What the hell is that thing?" Shouted the woman loudly as the pair scrambled deeper into the ventilation system, the sound of shredding metal echoing behind them as the terrifying figure attempted to give chase.

"I don't know, and I don't want to know!" replied the Turain frantically as they crawled on their hands and knees to safety, the monsters bone chilling roars filling their ears. "Just keep going!"

"You don't need to tell me twice." replied the Commander forcefully as she emerged into what looked like some kind maintenance shaft that stretched out above them into the upper levels.

"Ladies first." stated the spectre as the two of them exchanged knowing looks.

"If we live through this remind me to strangle you." grumbled Shepard.

"If we live through this Mr. Doom will probably do it for you." declared the spectre in all seriousness as he watched the female human carefully disappear into the gloom.

"I'll bring popcorn." came the reply.

* * *

The weapon roared, sending brain and bone matter flying in all directions as the headless torso toppled onto the blood soaked floor.

" _ **Surrounding area is now clear, recalculating time estimation to completion of mission.**_ " the voice leaked out of the helmet internal speakers as the operative paused to catch its breath. " _ **Estimations complete, new completion time; two hours twenty minutes.**_ " it was acceptable, the longer a purge took the more likely something would go wrong, he'd learned that the hard way on Jump Zero all those years ago, unfortunately his internal contemplation's were quickly silenced as his personal VI surged back into life. " _ **Alert; uncorrupted life-signs detected, mission parameters shifted, updating objectives, primary goal purge infestation; secondary goal, investigate non-hostile signatures.**_ " the man let out a barely disguised sigh; nothing was ever simple was it.

* * *

Shepard let out a loud sneeze. "Someone must be talking about me." She muttered quietly to herself as she came to a halt in front of an airtight hatch.

"Find something?" questioned Nihlus quietly as if half expecting monsters to come crashing in at any moment. Given their recent past experiences he felt it was an appropriate assumption.

"Looks like a way out, you want to risk it?" the Turian mulled it over in his mind for a few moments before nodding in agreement.

"Just do it quietly, we don't want to attract any unwanted attention." the pair shuddered, even if they were relatively hidden in the ventilation system it didn't stop the horrifying sounds that leaked in from the floors below, a sickening mix of death and devastation that would make even the most hardened veterans sick.

"Something we both agree on." whispered the Commander as she slowly activated the controls, on the other side, to the pairs eternal gratification, was a surprisingly empty looking workshop, tools and half-finished items lying around abandoned.

"Is it clear?" enquired the spectre from somewhere below her.

"Seems like it, or at least there's no blood or body parts." the statement earned her a snort from the more experienced agent.

"At this point I'll take what I can get, now will you please get moving, not that I don't enjoy staring at your ass but it's a little cramped in here." the Commander spluttered in indignation but nonetheless exited the narrow space, though if see hadn't been wearing a helmet everyone would probably have been able to see the flush of embarrassment that had painted itself across her cheeks.

"Inappropriate comments aside, do you have any idea where the hell we are?" asked the human as she glanced at their general surroundings. "Because I don't have a clue."

"That's not surprising in the least." snorted the Turian as he brought up his onmi-tool "Unlike some people I stopped by one of the automap stations when we arrived, it kind of helps to know where you're going."

"I'm starting to see why Doom Guy was strangling you this morning." muttered the woman as she calmly cradled her shotgun in her arms.

"Just trying to teach you an important lesson." replied the spectre dismissively as he examined the glowing display.

"Which is?" snorted Shepard as she began investigating a nearby holo screen that had been left open.

"That he who knows the battlefield controls it." came the sagely response as the agent tore his gaze away from the map. "Found something?" he quickly added as he noticed the look of concern that had darted across his colleagues eyes.

"It's some kind of written log, the owner of this shop, one Tibetus Papgius began keeping it a few months ago after weird things started to happen on the station." her tone had gone strangle quiet.

"What kinds of things?" questioned the spectre as he lent over her shoulder to get a better look.

* * *

[ **Codex entry: Argent Energy** ]

first discovered on Mars at the turn of the twenty second century by the highly respected human scientist Doctor Samuel Hayden Argent energy is a highly concentrated and self-reproducing energy resource. Initially only adopted by humanity and the Systems Alliance, it quickly gathered a massive following shortly after the latter's integration into the wider galactic community.

Matriarch V'crive, one of the republics most experienced and knowledgeable energy speculators was quoted as saying that it had, "For all intents and purposes, reshaped the basic fabric of commercial society overnight." It was not hard to see why, a seemingly clean and renewable power source had long been sought after by both the private and public sectors alike due to the excessive prices levelled against them by the few planets and corporations that had access to stockpiles of element zero a vital element need for modern society to exist.

Rather understandably these elements took a rather hostile view to the introduction of Argent energy onto the galactic market and attempted to have it outlawed, calming that it had not passed the necessary health and safety assessments; the matter was eventually settled in twenty one fifty nine after the Citadel Council took the unprecedented decision to federalize the acquisition and trading of the valuable resource with Citadel space, which turned out to be a rather wise decision in hindsight after several sources of the plasma were discovered on other worlds under a joint venture undertaken by the Citadel Department of Energy.

The regulating body set up after the federalization of Argent energy and the Union Aerospace Corporation, which under Doctor Samuel Hayden, had not only discovered Argent energy but also pioneered its use as an alternative to dark matter; today it is believed that the Argent energy market makes up a third of the Council's yearly GDP with most experts believing that this is only set to increase, with the boom in the demand for the seemingly never ending resource.

* * *

 **Here is the next chapter and yes this does mean that I've decided to take this on full time, but please understand that I've got other story's and work that will compete that have to factored in so please be understanding.**

 **Please Read: Before any of you get angry in the comments at me about my opinion surrounding handheld mass effect weaponry I just want to say that based on reading up on Ballistic Trauma, ****Terminal Ballistics and Stopping Power this is the answer I came to, their guns would be highly accurate but would lack secondary damage options relying on the primary** **injury to kill opponents.**

 ** **Please review if able, it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, even if its just a thank you it real means a lot.****

 **Thank you for reading this, see you all next time.**

 **Gods-own.**


	3. Chapter 3

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 3

* * *

"By the spirits, what is this?" Demanded the spectre in disbelief as his eyes trailed over the digital journal in front of them.

"I've got no idea." murmured Shepard in confusion as she scrolled the down onto the next page. "But there's more, look at the time stamp." she indicated at the top of the document.

"Twenty fourth of twenty four." the turian frowned deeply.

"And you just found this open? The terminal wasn't locked or the file encrypted in anyway?" he sounded deeply suspicious of the information being laid out before them.

"The console was in sleep mode when I found it," explained the Commander. "And judging from the amount of dust on the screen it's been that way for a few days." Nihlus glanced at the thin layer of grime that had settled over the workstation.

"Which supports the time stamp at the top of the journal entry." declared the agent "It's dated a few days ago." the pair looked at the document.

"But this can't be real right?" murmured the woman in horrified uncertainty "Cultists, human sacrifices, what the hell is going on?"

"I don't know, but perhaps this human can tell us." advised the spectre thoughtfully as he contemplated the text. "Go back a few weeks, maybe we can find when this all started" the Commander nodded as she turned her attention back to the screen.

* * *

 _Elsewhere at around the same time:_

"Have the life signs moved since your last scan V.E.G.A?" Questioned the operative as he slammed an armored fist into what once might have been a turian at one time, now a warped perversion of flesh and bone, which had taken a rather unwise decision to take a swing at him as he came barreling through an open doorway; the blow shattered the things jaw and sending dark, sickly looking blood splashing all over the floor as he followed up with a boot stomp that turned the man's left leg blue as gore clung to it.

" _ **Recalibrating, the two life signs have indeed not moved for the last three minutes. Analysis, it is possible that they think themselves secure in their current location.**_ " the synthetic voice replied monotonically into his ear as the former marine glanced at the holographic map displayed on his omni-tool.

"There's no such thing on this station. Plot a direct route, let's get this done." growled the man before setting off at an increased pace towards his new objective.

* * *

"I think I've found it" declared Shepard distractedly as her gaze stayed fixed on the documentation in front of her.

"Well let's hear it then, we haven't got all day" instructed Nihlus as he finished his inspection of the abandoned repair shop; his companion wisely decided to hold her tongue, it really wasn't the right time to get into a full blown argument with her superior about his people skills.

"Twenty first of May: Jackson is still going on about the wrong order that arrived yesterday, he's annoyed that his suppliers on Eden Prime got the shipment mixed up, he won't stop complaining about the ugly little statue that they sent him instead, the American was going to throw it away but apparently the real owner managed to get in contact and persuaded him to hold onto it until they could get there to reclaim the dratted thing."

"I take it that was the start of everything?" murmured the spectre. "Go on."

"First of June: Jackson keeps reading that little book of his at work, ever since the statues owner gifted it to him after reacquiring their property; it's the only thing he can talk about. I wish that he would stop going on about it." the Commander glanced up from her reading. "It goes on like that for a few weeks, but you can tell that the writer is slowly becoming more concerned with their friends' behavior." she turned back to the display.

"Just listen to this entry, "Tenth of August: Jackson's keeps going to that weird little reading group of his again tonight, Mary can't see the problem with it, she says that a bunch of other people from our sector go, says that it's a good thing, argues that more people should take up literature instead of drinking. I don't think she likes me going to the bar after work anymore but I need it. We got word yesterday, a couple of workmen found a body on one of the lower levels, they couldn't even tell what gender the poor bastard was the corpse was that messed up, the security chief is muttering about organizing night cycle patrols, he thinks we might have a serial killer on our hands." the pair exchanged knowing looks.

"It wasn't a book club was it?" the turian asked.

"No, no it wasn't" muttered the woman grimly. "I'll spare you the more grisly details, but the long and short of it is that from then on more people start disappearing before turning up later dead, first it's just ship crews, mercenaries and the like, but eventually people the writer knows start to fall victim to this so-called serial killer." she grimaced as she remembered the details she'd just read. "Around this time Jackson and his associates start lobbying the stations supervisor, asking for permission to preach openly about what they had learned in their book."

"Judging from our current predicament I take it that they allowed it." countered Nihlus unhappily.

"Seems like it, though the writer suggests that something shady was going on, one of the governors sisters was apparently a member of this cult and yes I am sure that's what it was. A cult, nothing more, nothing less." her associate nodded in unhappy agreement.

"That's what it appears to be." he muttered. "Troubling, I've had some experience with dealing with these kinds of people before, it never ends well."

"Well that's reassuring." commented Shepard darkly as she looked back at the written account. "But unfortunately it seems you're right, after they got permission to speak publicly the whole situation quickly got out of hand, the later entries talk about mass public unrest and things hunting the stations inhabitants from the shadows."

"Sounds bad." muttered the turian as he adjusted his grip on the shotgun. "Any idea what happened to him?" the commander nodded sadly.

"The last few sentences are him warning anyone who finds this to flee as he intends to."

"It doesn't look like he succeeded unfortunately." declared her superior as he gestured for her to follow him as the pair headed towards a side entrance set into a nearby wall. "And unless we want to end up like him we'd better get moving"

"Agreed." they fell silent as they quietly pried the door open manually so as not to attract any unwanted attention, unfortunately it didn't really help as only a few minutes later there came a deafening shriek from further down the streets as multiple figures could be seen staggering into view.

"Go, go!" The instruction was quickly obeyed as the pair jogged away in the opposite direction desperately attempting to put some distance between themselves and their lumbering pursuers. "Take the next right!" snapped Nihlus sharply. "Then go straight, we'll end up at a small hangar, it'll give us more room to maneuver."

"Or enough room to hang ourselves." countered the woman as they spotted the well labelled blast doors off in the distance. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Do you want to stay here and find out?" Challenged the turian.

"Good point." they paused ever so briefly as the metal doors opened to reveal the still smoking remains of a cargo shuttle. Standing atop the ruined vehicle was a ghoulish looking creature that let out a loud high pitched screech as it spotted them.

"What the hell is that thing!" questioned Shepard sharply as she opened fire of the skulking humanoid in front of them, which quickly returned the favour by summoning a ball of fire into its hand before lobbing it at the startled duo, sending them scrambling for cover. "Did that thing just throw a fireball at us?" shouted the human over the sound of combat as they unloaded on the monstrosity, sending it tumbling backwards as a lucky round found its mark in the center of the creatures forehead, splitting its skull and spreading what little brains it had over the ruined floor.

"Apparently, not that it helped it at all." commented Nihlus quietly as they edged towards the twitching corpse. "Rather unexpected though." he added, well they were going to be surprised again as mere moments later the lifeless form combusted, turning into nothing more than smoking, smoldering ash in a blink of an eye.

"What the hell was that?" stammered Shepard in confusion as she gingerly poked the tiny mound with her boot.

"I honestly have no idea." declared the spectre in equal bemusement as he took a picture with his omni-tool. "I'm going to have to show this to some of my colleagues, we need to know what's going on in this station."

"That won't go down well with the OSI operative, he'll want everything burned." warned the Commander cautiously.

"What my colleague doesn't know won't hurt him." replied the turian evenly as he tucked the information away for later.

"But it could hurt you." the woman stated as the sounds of hammering echoed out from all surroundings as more abominations were attracted towards the sounds of conflict.

"I'll tell you what, if we live through this, I'll let you decide." replied her superior as one of the doorways caved in under the weight of bodies on the other side.

"I'm keeping you to that." roared the human as the pair unloaded on the approaching throng with frantic zeal, but it didn't even slow them down as the two of them quickly discovered.

We're running out of room!" declared the Commander sharply as she blasted an attacker off its feet with a well-timed blast. "Ideas?"

"Keep shooting until they're all dead, that the general plan" came her answer as the spectre smashed one of the creatures in the face with the butt of his weapon, braking its ruined features and coating the floor in its blood.

"I think we need to come up a new idea." countered the human as she ducked away from a crude attack with what looked like some kind of hand tool just in time to see another attacker lunching itself at her from her peripheral vision.

"Commander!" Nihlus sure her go down, watched as the thing that had once been an asari bare its jagged teeth as it bit deep into reinforced fabric that made up her combat suit, heard its enraged snarls as the soldier franticly attempted to detach it, with little success.

"Stay still!" the order thundered out over the chaotic space as an imposing form came crashing into the melee, smashing the attacker from his fellow human with a bone shattering kick before laying waste to the surrounding assailants in a devastating demonstration of sustained fire from his brutally effective assault rifle that ripped through assembled monstrosities as if they we're made from tissue paper, sending broken bodies and severed limbs tumbling in all directions.

* * *

"V.E.G.A, I need a full area scan right now!" Bellowed the OSI operative over his loud speakers as he backhanded an attacker that got too close, snapping its neck like a twig.

" _ **Initiating, standby.**_ " the voice had a strangely sympathetic tone and the spectre couldn't help raise a brow ridge in silent surprise, it looked like that even the Office of Special Investigations had some secrets that even they kept hidden from the outside world.

"Get her out of here!" bellowed Doom Guy as he turned his full attention back to the mass of enemies in front of them. "She's of no use at the moment!" the remark earned the imposing human an indignant yelp from the Commander.

"It's just a flesh wound, I can still fight!" she protested as she pulled herself upright.

"You will follow my orders!" spat the operative venomously as he punched a hole clean through an attackers chest before sending the recently deceased individual crashing backwards into a enraged associate that had been stumbling towards the operative mere moments before.

"And stay out of my way!"

"I think we should listen to him Commander" hastily coarsened the spectre as he shot one of the abominations in the face with his shotgun. "He is the expert after all" Shepard let out a irritate snort.

"Fine but he can't stop me from killing these things" she snapped as she began picking off the few stragglers that this Doom Guy had left in his wake.

"V.E.G.A, I need a diagnostic scan of the Commander, look for anything out of the ordinary, I want to know if she's been affected by the hell taint." he instructed as he shut off his external speakers.

" _ **I doubt that will be necessary, but I will proceed nonetheless, do you wish to hear the results of the local area scan?**_ "

"Vital points only." declared the man as he smashed one of the monsters away from him with the butt of his rifle. "I'm kind of busy."

" _ **Understood.**_ " came the synthetic reply. " _ **Fifty eight hostile signatures detected, one fifth register above danger grade gamma, caution is advised; five signatures register as danger threat alpha, extreme caution is advised.**_ " the operative cursed under his breath.

"Do you have a location on the epicenter yet?" he demanded as he finished off yet another opponent gruesomely. "We need to shut this down now and we need to shut it down hard!"

" _ **The scans are coming back inconclusive, the background Argent energy levels are too high for an accurate reading.**_ " countered the V.I evenly. " _ **We will most likely have to get closer to the source before we can get a pinpoint reading.**_ "

"That isn't helping." snapped the operative as he put down the last of the nearby assailants with a reinforced boot stomp that coated the surrounding in gore. "The longer we take the more likely the breach will stabilize and then we'll need to take more extreme measures." he warned.

" _ **I am well aware.**_ " retorted the synthetic voice in the man's ear as he stomped back towards the pair. " _ **Perhaps your associates may know something?**_ "

"We'll see." Doom Guy muttered "But first I'm going to find out what the _hell_ those two are doing here."

" _ **Understandable.**_ " but the reply was lost as the operative came to a halt in front of the uneasy duo.

"You broke quarantine regulations!" he growled as he turned his helmet visor to glare cold murder at the figures in front of him. "Explain!"

"We lost your IFF signal after the explosion." explained the spectre professionally as he took a steadying breath "We could no longer guarantee operational status, so I took the initiative as highest ranked Council representative to board the station in an attempt to ascertain your condition."

"Is that so," Growled the man "Can you corroborate this statement Commander?" he turned his attention towards the alliance officer, who took an instinctual step away from the heavily built individual in front of her.

"My Captain advised against it, but the spectre said that the council would not be satisfied until they knew exactly what happened to you." declared the woman uneasily.

" _ **They do have a point operative; both the CAC director and the Council members would be extremely put out in such an event.**_ "

"You're not helping V.E.G.A." muttered the man quietly as he fixed the Commander with a chilling stare. "Even if I take your words at face value you both broke quarantine regulations by boarding this station, there will be consequences when all this is over, especially for you Nihlus." he jabbed a finger at the turian threateningly, who nodded in understanding. "But until then my orders still stand, as do yours" he turned to walk away. "Now tell me exactly what you have discovered." he ordered sharply and they did in gruesome detail.

* * *

"This log entry, are you sure that it was genuine?" Challenged the operative pointedly.

"From what we could tell." replied Shepard as the pair finished bringing their superior up to speed on what they uncovered. "This Tibetus Papgius seem to be real, there were other documents with his name on it."

" _ **The Commander is correct, one turian by the name of Tibetus Papgius does appear on the station's records.**_ " declared V.E.G.A from the internal speakers as it chimed in on the conversation.

"Why didn't you find this journal when I plugged you into the system?" Questioned the operative.

" _ **From her description it seems that the terminal is separate from the network, probably a security measure on the authors' part.**_ " was the reply. " _ **Though I do believe we have now a rough area in which to conduct our search for the breach.**_ "

"I noticed." the man looked over towards his co-workers "You're sure that this cult had a meeting place on the lower levels?"

"From what we could gather yes." replied the spectre. "I take it that this information is important?" the question went unanswered as the imposing human fell silent for a long moment.

"Operative?" Enquired his fellow human uneasily.

"You will not mention anything you have seen or will see to anyone on grounds of execution." threatened OSI representative coldly as he pulled his rifle from of his back. "Am I understood?"

"Yes."

"Good." He tossed the weapon towards the surprised turian "Take this, it'll be more effective then what you're currently using." he quickly followed this up by passing the heavy duty shotgun to the eager looking woman. "I only have a limited amount of ammunition so use them sparingly."

"And what about you?" questioned the spectre as he attempted to support the hefty weapon with only partial success.

"I still have my sidearm." countered the operative distractedly as he looked around the ruined hangar. "Besides, there are more practical ways to deal with the problem." his gaze fell upon a sturdy looking sledgehammer that had once been used for ship repair, now turned to a more brutal purpose.

"You can't be serious." stated Shepard in disbelief as she watched the imposing man give the repurposed tool a few swings.

"It wouldn't be the first time." rumbled the individual as he calmly placed the melee weapon on his shoulder before slowly striding away, his associates closely in tow.

"So what's the plan?" Enquired the Commander. "I take it you know what's going on?" the pair remained silent in anticipation as the three of them made their way out of the ruined space and into the churning chaos that raged unchecked across the rest of the station.

"All you need to know is that our objective is in the basement of the central control hub in the middle of this installation." stated the operative dismissively as he smashed the hammer into one of the ghoulish figures that lunged at him, sending the gore soaked ruminants crashing into a nearby wall with a wet thud.

"Can you at least tell us what these things are?" requested Nihlus as he let off a single shot that nearly decapitated one of those fireball throwing monstrosities that had stuck its head out of a nearby ventilation shaft.

"You don't have the security clearance for that information." rebuked the armored man sharply as he crushed another attacker into the floor. "Just stay focused and watch our six."

"Focused on what?" Challenged Shepard as she stepped over a blood drenched body as the trio advanced down a wide access passageway. "I think we've earned the right to know."

The imposing figure remained silent for a long moment before letting a soft sigh escape from his helmets speakers.

"My orders are to find the source of the infestation and remove it, once that's done I'm to commence the destruction of the station."

"What about survivors?" Countered the Commander quietly. "There might be other people hiding."

"There won't be." replied the operative grimly. "These things are ruthless and efficient, nothing living on the station will have been permitted to survive, and I know this from experience." his tone turned cold. "All we can do now is make sure that this plague doesn't spread."

"This has happened before hasn't it" declared the Turian in grim realization as his mind joined what pieces of information he had together. "Everything you've said makes it sound like you've encountered these creatures before." the operative remained silent as if refusing to acknowledge the comment. "I get the feeling that there's more going on than your telling us."

"That's enough Nihlus." snapped the Commander as she forced her way into the conversation.

"I thought you wanted answers!" growled the spectre pointedly as he glanced at the human in mild confusion.

"I do but right now I think we should focus on the task at hand!" countered Shepard as she cast a hand around at the smoldering carnage. "Besides you said it yourself he outranks you at this moment in time so it might to smart not to piss the guy with the blood soaked sledgehammer off!"

"Do you really think he'd silence a Council spectre in front of a witness." snorted Nihlus mockingly.

"Wouldn't be the first time." replied the operative as he brutally flattened something that looked vaguely Batarian under the business end of his improvised weapon. "Just remember I have the final word on what lives and what dies on this installation, including you two." he levelled a glare at the pair. "And at this exact moment in time you're not doing anything to help your cause." that put an end to the conversation as the trio lapsed back into silence.

" _ **Was that wise?**_ " questioned the V.I monotonically into the man's ear. " _ **Telling them I mean.**_ "

"Their fate is in the Councils hands, not mine." muttered the man calmly inside his helmet as he continued to wade through the shambling foes. "I just wanted them to stop asking questions."

" _ **Then you were successful.**_ " came the reply. " _ **Though I doubt the Director or the Councilors would mind if you terminated Agent Nihlus, he is asking a large amount of questions.**_ "

"I kill monsters, not men." growled the figure "It's up to my superiors what happens next."

" _ **I'll make a note of that in the mission report.**_ "

"You do that." rumbled the man as he suddenly came to an abrupt halt.

"What is it?" questioned Shepard as they prepared themselves, weapons at the ready.

"Trouble." snarled the operative as a low predatory growl reverberated throughout empty corridor. "Go." the pair exchanged questioning looks. "I said _go_!" bellowed the imposing individual as a large section of paneling came crashing into the confined space, a massive humanoid close behind.

"I would listen to him if I were you!" shouted Nihlus as he physically dragged his female associate backwards as the two towering opponents squared off. "Trust me on this!"

"Well I haven't got all day!" spat the man as he glared cold murder at the wall of muscle in front of him, "Let's do this!"

The hell knight duly obliged.

* * *

[CITADEL COUNCIL CENTRAL ARCHIVES: ACCESS GRANTED]

.

[DATA REQUEST RECEIVED: SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED]

.

[SECURITY CLEARANCE RECEIVED]

.

[DATA REQUEST INITIATED]

.

[ARCHIVE SEARCH RESULTS]

.

.

.

[Council Accountability Committee: Gagarin Station Disaster Report Summary]

[Date Stamp: 10/6/2159]

[Security Classification: TOP SECRET]

[Special Handling Instructions: Security Clarence Omega Required To View In Full]

Report Overview: To investigate the loss of the System Alliance Space Station Gagarin, also known as Jump Zero.

Initial Findings Summary: After intense investigation of the evaluable evidence the loss of space station Gagarin can be attributed to a critical Argent energy breach: classification Omega two, that engulfed the entire installation, subsequent detonations of secondary reactors lead to the structural weakening, which developed into rapid structural collapse that eventually lead to the stations disintegration at eleven hundred hours GST post initial breach.

Initial Casualty Figures:

Civilian Population pre-event: 300

Civilian Population post-event: 001

Alliance Non Combat Personnel pre-event: 500

Alliance Non Combat Personnel post-event: 0000

Alliance Combat Personnel pre-event: 1000

Alliance Combat Personnel post-event: 0001

Total Loss of life: 1798

Number of Saviours: 2

* * *

 **Here is the next chapter I hope you all liked it and yes I know that I need to add more gore, I'm just building up to it, trust me.**

 **Please review if able, it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, even if its just a thank you it real means a lot.**

 **As always thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it, see you all next time.**

 **Gods-own.**


	4. Chapter 4

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 4

* * *

"What the hell _was_ that thing!" shouted Shepard as the pair made a mad dash towards a partially blocked access hatch, leaving the OSI operative behind to deal with the hulking mass of gray muscle that was squarely focused on ruining their day in as painful a way possible.

"Why are you asking _me_!" snapped the spectre as there came a bellowing roar directly behind them as the unseen assailants threw themselves at each over with barely controlled bloodlust. "Now shut up and run!" and run they did as the sounds of battle echoed all around them.

* * *

"Is that the best you've got!" snarled Doom Guy as he ducked under an uppercut from the enraged hell knight before delivering one of his own with the business end of his sledgehammer that sent the lumbering assailant stumbling backward.

" **I would advise that you hasten the termination.** " advised V.E.G.A in the man's ear piece " **It would be ill advised to allow your associates to progress unsupervised.** "

"Noted." growled the human as he slammed a fist into the demons twisted human like skull, sending crashing into a nearby wall with an enraged snarl.

" **You seem to have angered him.** " commented the V.I evenly as the daemonic being let out a bone shuddering roar as it surged back to its clawed feet.

"I kind of noticed that!" spat the operative as he quickly threw up his armored forearms in a cross guard as one of the monsters massive fists slammed into him with brutal force, denting the reinforced metal and ripping the air from his lungs as he was sent flying back down the ruined corridor.

" **Get up operative, get up right now!** " declared the synthetic voice sharply

"I'm trying!" the human rolled to one side as the thundering monster came crashing down into the spot that he'd been previously occupying. "Where are the other two?"

" **Agent Nihlus and Commander Shepard are currently nearing the central control hub, their estimated arrival time is ninety seconds.** " the statement drew a low curse from the specialist as he quickly kicked the demon in the face, cracking its jaw and sending a stream of dark, crimson fluid splashing out all over the ruined floor.

"This ends now!" he bellowed as he took hold of the knights bleeding skull with both hands before slamming it repeatedly into an exposed bulkhead until the bones shattered and the crushed brains ran in gory rivers down the man's arms until he let go of the shattered appendage.

" **Subtle as always operative.** " commented the V.I " **Your suits structural integrity is at ninety percent by the way, I would suggest that you take care to keep it at such.** " the man let out a dismissive snort.

"No promises." he muttered as he quickly retrieved his sledgehammer from amongst carnage and let it rest against his shoulder. "Are you still picking up the others signals?"

" **I am, they are currently entering the ground floor of the main hub.** " there was a slight pause " **And judging from the readings they will be in even more danger than they are currently. I strongly advise that you hurry.** " the man didn't need to be told twice as he broke into a sprint.

* * *

"This day just keeps getting stranger and stranger." muttered Shepard in growing horror as the pair slowly inched into the warped landscape that made up the entirety of the central control tower.

"I don't want to even think about that we're walking on." added the turian spectre as he tried to ignore the wet squelching sounds that were emanating out from under his armoured boots as they carefully picked their way across the red, organic carpet that seemed to have covered every inch of structure.

"It . . . it looks like living flesh." whispered the woman uneasily as she carefully step over a twitching tendril that lay stretched out across the middle of the entrance hall. "What the fuck is going on?"

"I get the feeling that we really don't want to know. I certainly don't." replied the agent as he painfully turned his attention away from a body that might once have been an asari, which was now seemingly fused into the grotesque architecture. "But I can understand why our good operative is so paranoid about making sure that nothing escapes this installation." he slowly pushed aside a mass of weeping muscle that hung down in front of their path. "If the general public was made aware of this there would be total panic, can you imagine the political shit storm that would be unleashed?" the turian shook his head in disbelief. "It would be the krogan rebellions all over again, with the rest of the galaxy alongside them."

"I take it that was a rather a bad thing?" stated the human quietly as she carefully sidestepped around a puddle of blood as she fell in behind her superior.

"Would be a massive understatement." growled Nihlus "It nearly led to the collapse of the Council at the time, with several parties within the numerous member governments levelling open criticism at the seemingly flawed institution." the commander let out a low whistle.

"Damn, I didn't recognize that things got that bad, I always imagined that the older races were firmly behind the status quo."

"Then you would be wrong." snorted the spectre "Even now, but especially back then, there was underlying distrust of the Citadel Councils seemingly overreaching powers, especially amongst those species that have longer life expectancy."

"And I take it that unleashing the rachni on the galaxy wasn't seen to be a wise maneuver on their part"

"Looks like you catch on quick Commander" replied Nihlus grimly. "Fortunately my peoples arrival on the galactic scene helped dissuade anymore talk of secession." the turian let out a pained sigh. "But there's always someone else, some other threat on the horizon, that's why the Spectres and the Office of Special Investigations exist." it felt like he was telling her something important so she politely decided to remain quiet as he continued talking.

"For once we agree on something." declared an unmistakable voice as the pair spun around in time to see their erstwhile associate stomping determinedly over the twisted landscape towards them. "Don't touch anything unless I tell you to." added the operative sharply as he took the lead. "Stay alert, things will only get worse from here on out."

"Seriously!" spluttered Shepard in disbelief. "It gets worse?"

"Murphy's Law Commander; if it can go wrong, it will." muttered the imposing human as his fist tightened around the handle of his weapon. "Never forget that."

"Noted." stated the turian as he joined in on the conversation. "I take it that everything we're seeing is strictly off the record?" it wasn't really a question.

"What do you think?" was the reply as the operative stomped deeper into the hellish surroundings.

"You just _had_ to open your mouth didn't you Nihlus." grumbled the Commander as she fell in beside the spectre as they quickly jogged after the disappearing figure.

"It comes with the job description." countered the agent.

"Yeah I get that." grumbled the woman "But if you haven't noticed our superior isn't really the chatty type, so maybe you should tone it down for now." she advised.

"I'll take it under advisement." stated the turian as the pair final caught up with OSI operative as he came to a stop in front of ruined doorway.

"That...that doesn't look good." said Shepard uneasily when she saw the massive claw marks that had dug deep into its metal surface.

"I agree." murmured the spectre as he tightened his grip on the borrowed weapon. "I would prefer if we didn't run into what ever made those marks if possible." the Commander nodded in agreement, they were going to be disappointed.

"You should expect growing resistance the closer we get to our objective." declared the armored man as he pried the portal open with his bare hands.

"What _is_ our objective?" Enquired Shepard pointedly. "What are we looking for in this basement?"

"You'll know it when you see it," replied Doom Guy as he step through the gap. "It's rather hard to miss."

"I really don't like the sound of that." muttered Nihlus under his breath.

"You're not the only one." sighed his companion as she took position behind them, trekking forwards into the flickering gloom.

* * *

" **Argent energy readings are increasing at a steady rate, our estimations were apparently correct.** " stated V.E.G.A over the operative's comm as the slowly made their way into the bowels of the facility.

"What about hostiles? Can you give me an update on their possible locations?" he countered as the man as he punched yet another possessed crewman in the face, cracking its skull and soaking the surrounding area in purple blood as it toppled backwards over a nearby railing and vanished from view.

" **Unfortunately the increased Argent energy readings are preventing me from detecting any more hostiles, I suggest extreme caution from here on.** " the man let out a tired sigh, that was going to make things more complicated, especially for his unwanted companions as they were unfamiliar with what awaited them below.

"Problem?" Questioned the Commander as she seemingly picked up on his frustration.

"You could say that." replied the armored individual as he continued their trudge ever downwards. "All this background radiation is playing havoc with my scanners we're going to be blind from this point onwards."

"Wait, your scanners work!" spluttered Shepard "How?"

"Internal shielding, the armor was meant to be used on the front lines so its designers took into account possible enemy cyber-attacks during its creation."

"Sounds smart, must have been expensive though, that kind of insulation doesn't come cheap." the operative shrugged dismissively.

"If you say so." the conversation was quickly interrupted by a deafening roar that echoed up from out of the depths.

"What the hell was that?" demanded the Commander sharply as she glanced over the railing in growing apprehension.

"My credits are on whatever is responsible for all these ripped up bodies we keep coming across." muttered Nihlus quietly as he raised his rifle, casting his gaze around at the warped landscape. "But judging from what we've witnessed it could be nearly anything."

"We'll find out soon enough." stated the operative as he set off at brisk pace. "Stay close." the others nodded as they made a bee line towards their intended destination.

"Is it just me, or is the back ground noise increasing?" shouted Shepherd as she slammed the butt of her shotgun into one of the ghoulish creatures that strayed too close.

"The Argent generators must still be online, although without worker oversight it must be running a risk of collapse."

"So now not only do we have to worry about monsters, but a possible reactor meltdown as well" spat the woman in frustration. "Just bloody lovely"

"Welcome to the life of a Council agent Commander, never a dull moment." chuckled the spectre humorlessly as he booted an opponent in the face. "Changing your mind about your nomination yet?"

"I'm thinking about it." grumbled Shepard darkly as she blasted yet another attacker in half with her borrowed shotgun.

"Stay focused." snapped the operative as he crushed one of the twitching bodies under the business end of his sledgehammer, splattering its rotten fluids all over the place as it chest cavity gave out. "We need to get this mission over and done with as soon as possible"

"Why do I get the feeling that the time element in this is rather more important than you're letting on?" pointed out the turian sharply as he dodged a swiping blow from a staggering enemy before planting a bullet in between its eye's.

"It does kind of sound like that Sir." added the woman as she curb stomped one of the deformed bodies that was attempting to crawl across the floor towards them, spattering its brains all over the lower half of her leg. "If you don't mind me saying so." there was a noticeable pause as the operative mulled the question over before answering.

"There is a risk of critical contamination breach if the situation is not dealt with quickly." admitted the human as he finished off yet another clump of enemies with the improvised weapon.

"Shouldn't the reactor meltdown deal with that problem?" Challenged the spectre.

"There's still the source of the contamination." declared Doom Guy forcefully as they made their way through the encroaching enemy swarm. "Our mission now is to purge the cause of the infestation, then evacuate back to the Normandy before the installation collapses in on itself."

"You're not asking for much are you?" grumbled the turian as he picked off one of those fireball throwing things that was scrambling down a wall towards them. "Can you at least tell us what this source looks like?"

"You'll know it when you see it" repeated the operative grimly as he cleared a bath for the rest of them to follow. "Just focus on staying alive."

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Replied the Commander as she blasted a warped salarian in the face with her shotgun, shattering its skull and sending its rotten brains flying in all directions. "How are you holding up Nihlus?"

"A few scrapes and bruises, nothing serious, yourself?" the woman flinched.

"Besides my arm, which still hurts like a bitch by the way, I'm fine." the turian paused briefly.

"What?" the woman didn't miss the look that darted across her superiors face. "What is it?"

"Is she infected?" questioned the spectre cold as he sent the OSI representative a pointed stare.

"No she's free of the taint, I checked the moment she got bit." admitted the heavily armored individual steadily as he curves stomped yet another foe.

"Wait what taint?" she glanced franticly at the pair "What taint!"

"There was a reason that I implemented CHO's quarantine regulations." He stated as he turned his full attention toward the Alliance officer "There is an infection in these things bodies, fortunately for you the period when it is active has passed otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation." Shepard flinched.

"Would I have turned into one of those things we've been fighting?" she enquired softly.

"Eventually." confirmed the operative "I wouldn't have let it get to that stage though, you have my word on that." the statement sent a shiver down her spine, he really meant it, the man would have killed her if she'd been infected.

"We're nearly at the target coordinates." declared Nihlus loudly over the sounds of battle as they cleared the staircase that ran down into the bowels of the main control tower.

"Stay focused, the enemy will attempt to protect the source, so they're going to be throwing everything that they have left at us, expect heavy resistance."

"You're making them sound like an enemy army rather than a contagion." commented the spectre, but his attention was rather distracted from the conversation as the trio stumbled into the what had properly been the main supply room for the stations primary reactor.

"What is that!" stated Shepard loudly as both of them stared in disbelieving horror at the thing that dominated the empty space.

"It...it almost looks like some kind of heart." stammered the turian as his hearing picked up on the unmistakable thump...thump...thump of the organ in question that seemed to have erupted out of the ground.

"That's because it is." growled the operative as he readied his weapon. "V.E.G.A what is status of the tear?"

" **It's almost done stabilizing, I would recommend that you deal with it sooner rather than later operative.** " advised the V.I evenly

"Working on it." growled the man quietly as he took notice of the long strip of crimson that hung in the air directly above the organic structure.

"What is going on?" Demanded the Commander as she tore her gaze away from the freakish sight to glare angrily at the armored man beside her. "What is that thing!?"

"Our target, now shut up and kill it!" snapped the operative as he ripped the pistol from its holster.

"This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder." muttered Nihlus quietly as he started blazing away with the borrowed assault rifle at the disgusting object, almost instantaneously a high pitch shriek ripped the air asunder as the first rounds hit home.

"Keep firing I'll deal with the reinforcements" bellowed Doom Guy as he kicked one of impish creatures that had come storming into the room away from him as he took up a blocking between himself and his more fragile associates.

"Your heard the man, take that thing down!" Growled the turian agent as he turned his full focus on the protesting organ in front of them.

"Acknowledged!" snapped the woman as she took a confident step towards the organic structure, blasting away with her shotgun as she did so. "Fuck I wish this thing would shut the hell up!"

"It will when its dead!" declared the imposing human as he shattered another attackers head in a gore spray of crimson before punching something that had once been asari in the chest with a bone shattering thud. "Keep shooting!"

"We're working on it!" snapped the spectre coldly as he ploughed shot after shot into the bleeding mass. "It would be easier if we knew where to aim!"

"Glowing yellow eye on the side, hit it there!" Instructed the human as he batted away an overhead blow. "Shit!" the next moment the OSI representative vanished in a blur as he was sent flying backwards into a nearby wall as another of those lumbering gray skinned humanoids came thundering into the melee with an impressive shoulder charge.

"Operative!"

"I'm fine, keep shooting!" snarled the man as he staggered upright "Nothing else matters!"

"I would if I could!" countered Shepard as she threw herself to one side, the new arrival lashing out of her with a right hook. "But this guy has other ideas!"

"We couldn't tell!" spat the turian as he snapped off a few quick shots at the enraged creature, which only seemed to make it angrier as it let out a deafening roar.

"Not helping!" yelled Shepard as she blasted into the monsters chest as fast as her hand could pump the shotgun.

"Dodge right!" the order was obeyed automatically as the woman dived to one side as a split second later a second hellish monster crashed its fists into the metalwork, warping the plating and sending jagged shrapnel flying through the air.

"Great there's a second one." cursed the spectre as he glanced at the OSI operative in haggard desperation. "A little help please?"

"Working on it." growled the man as he barreled past, his sledgehammer at the ready "Just focus on killing the heart!" he slammed the business end of his weapon into the new arrivals face, sending it stumbling backwards as the blow hit home.

"You still got grenades?" shouted Nihlus over the din of battle as he exchanged a knowing look with the female human.

"One or two." The woman said with a grin as she figured out what Nihlus was getting at. "Want me to use them?"

"By all means." the reply had barely left the turians mandibles before the cylindrical discs went hurtling out into the open void.

"Fire in the hole!" the world went white as the compact explosives detonated in a spectacular blossom of fire and flame as it tore into the fleshy construct, for half a moment nothing happened, but then a deafening high pitched shriek ripped the air in twain as the tiny tear suddenly flared into life, the onlookers baring witness to a terrifying landscape of blood and bone that seemed to stretch on for as far as the eye could see before it vanished once again, the dying heart collapsing in on itself in a gory spray of crimson.

"Time to go!" bellowed the Doom Guy as he crushed one of the imposing brawlers under the business end of his weapon. "V.E.G.A you know what to do!"

" **Hacking primary reactor safety systems, time until critical meltdown T minus fifteen minutes.** "

"Seriously!" roared the spectre as he overheard the declaration from the V.I "Warn us next time before you do something like that!"

"Just shut up and run!" yelled the Commander as the three of them broke from the brutal melee and made a mad dash back the way they'd come, a seething mass of death and destruction close on their heels. "Shouldn't we kind of deal with these guys?" Shouted Shepard as they double-timed it up the seemingly never-ending set of stares.

"Look when this place goes nuclear these things won't even have their atoms left." countered the turian loudly as he vaulted over a twitching corpse. "I would rather not be around to witness that firsthand thank you very much."

"We'll make it, just keep running." declared the senior operative as he shoulder checked an imp into a nearby wall. "V.E.G.A what's the state of the reactor?"

" **At present the internal temperature of the reactor is currently at eighty five percent of recommended safety guidelines, estimated start of primary meltdown will begin in seven minutes, estimated detonation is in ten minutes.** " the human cursed quietly under his breath as the three man team darted through the doomed installation.

"How long will it take us to get clear?" he challenged.

" **Estimations suggest you will get clear in roughly eight point nine minutes, barring unforeseen complications.** " replied the V.I. evenly " **Good luck operative.** "

"I hate that fucking talking toaster some days." growled the man pointedly to himself. "We need to move!" He added out loud as they thundered down an empty corridor.

"Can't run any faster here!" shouted back the Alliance officer breathlessly just before a new, low guttural growl echoed out from nearby.

"By the spirits what was that!?" the turian glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see a large, hulking biped come crashing through a nearby door, its large razor sharp tusks snapping dangerously as it caught sight of them.

"V.E.G.A we need an airlock right now!" bellowed Doom Guy as he recognized the Pinkies unmistakable roar.

" **Next left, two hundred meters, run** " he didn't have to be told twice as he jerked a finger in the direction they needed to go as the trio managed to squeeze a few more scant seconds of blistering speed out of their legs as they hurtled towards safety.

* * *

"Captain I've got massive energy readings of the ships scanners, the stations reactors are passing safe parameters!" Jokers warning knocked Anderson out of his thoughts as the Normandy's command deck lit up with flashing alerts.

"Pull us away from the station, helmsman do we have a lock on the ground team?"

The pilots hands danced over the controls as he skillfully multitasked the multitude of orders being sent hurtling his way as if he was out on a mid-morning stroll.

"Got all three of them on radar, they're really booking it right now by the looks of it." he declared as a split second later a comm-channel snapped to life by his head as an all too familiar and worrying tone of the operative echoed out of the on-board speakers.

"Captain lock on to our IFF signatures, we are leaving at the installation at speed!"

"You heard the man!" bellowed the veteran officer as he stormed to the front of the ship. "I want to know exactly where they are at all-times, Pressley!" the middle aged man in question snapped to attention. "I want rescue crew in hard suits ten seconds ago!"

"Aye captain!" came the reply as the individual in question vanished from site.

"Get it done people, let's bring them home."

* * *

 **Apologies for the long wait folks this time of years is rather hectic for both myself and my proofreader, as always a massive shout out to** **Darth Azrael for all their hard work, couldn't do it with out them.**

 ** **Please review if able, it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, even if its just a thank you it real means a lot.****

 **As always thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it, see you all next time.**

 **Gods-own.**


	5. Chapter 5

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 5

* * *

[INCOMING PRIORITY MESSAGE...]

.

[SECURITY LEVEL: TOP SECRET]

.

[PROCESSING...]

.

[SECURITY CODE VERIFIED]

.

[PROCEEDING WITH DATA UPLOAD]

.

.

.

[From ODG]

[To DS]

[Primary and secondary objectives completed, loss of station due to contamination outbreak, deliberate enemy agent action discovered, location of suspected agent base uncovered, operation witnessed by spectre and associate, requesting instructions]

.

.

.

[END OF DATA TRANSMISSION...]

Director Shore let out a low sigh as he tore his gaze away from that holographic screen that sat precariously on one corner of his desk to press a button on the office intercom.

"Miss Reelun can you put in a priority call to Councillor Sparatus please, I wish to see speak with him in person as soon as possible" the line snapped into life as a distinctly quarian sounding voice echoed out over the speaker.

"Right away sir, shall I inform him of the nature of the meeting?"

"Just tell him that it pertains to a current investigation, he'll understand." replied the gray haired human tiredly as he ran a hand over his face.

"Of course sir, can I help you with anything else?"

"No Yira that will be all, thank you." the line went dead as his assistant busied herself with the allotted task.

* * *

 _Soon after_ :

"I take it that there's been a development" declared the councilman as he came striding into the spacious office.

"I would not be distracting you from your official duties if there wasn't Sparatus." stated the director of the CAC steadily. "Drink?"

"Please." the turian accepted the empty seat in front of him as his host quickly poured a measure of Palaven brandy into a waiting glass. "So, what's this development you called me in for? Has the situation on the station been resolved?"

"Indeed," replied the man grimly "I just received a transmission from our operative in the field."

"And?" Enquired the turian "What did he discover?" there was a long pause as the individual in front of him took a long sip from his own glass.

"A class-C infestation with a rapidly stabilizing temporal breach." the director pause as he allowed his guest to catch his breath as the councilman half choked himself on his drink in stunned shock.

"Are you serious!?" spluttered Sparatus in clear indignation. "By the spirits I thought you said it would be handled discreetly!"

"Our operative never had the chance to, from what I can ascertain for his rather curt message the situation was already destabilized before he arrived." there was another short pause "He clearly suggest that deliberate enemy activity was the cause, take that as you may" the remark court the other's attention full as the turians faceplates shifted into a pointed glare.

"He has positive confirmation of hostile agent involvement?" he questioned sharply.

"That's what the message says." commented the director. "Unfortunately our man isn't one for wordplay so we'll have to get the full account from him when he docks at the Citadel in the next few days."

"Did he mention anything else?" countered Sparatus uneasily. "It's unusual for you to request a meeting with me without my colleagues being present" the director let out a long sigh.

"You're correct. We have a complication that I think needs to be addressed somewhat before I take this matter before the council fully." the councillor raised a brow plate.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like where this is heading?" muttered the turian quietly before taking another long sip of his brandy.

"Because you're not." replied Shore grimly, "In the message the operative made note that the operations secrecy was compromised by Agent Kryik and who I'm guessing is Commander Shepard." the councilman visibly let out a deep sigh of clear frustration at the news.

"Spirits damn that stupid fool." he muttered unhappily as the turian ran a taloned hand over the top of his head. "Do we know how much of the mission was compromised?"

"The operative didn't say." replied the man seriously. "He requested further instructions on the matter, I get the feeling that he was holding off acting until he got confirmation from us."

"Is he requesting a termination order on them?" murmured Sparatus as he picked up on the cold undertone that was laced into the conversation. "Because I can only sponsor such an action against Nihlus, I have no authority over Alliance personnel."

"I don't know Councilman." admitted Director Shore uneasily "But judging from my previous experience with the operative in question I can say that it isn't likely, 'I kill monsters not men' is something that he's gone on record as saying in the past." the turian nodded in recollection.

"I to remember the man saying the same thing myself, always wondered what clarified as monsters in his mind."

"It's probably not wise to think to hard about that Sparatus." snorted the middle aged human evenly as he refilled his glass. "I'm just thankful that we picked him up after that debacle with Jump Zero back in fifty nine, god knows how worse we'd be right now if we didn't have someone of his ability to deal with the fallout."

"Indeed." agreed the politician "I know that my colleagues have some reservations about this Doom Guy and his rather _enthusiastic_ methods, but you can't argue with the results." the turian let out a low growl of approval. "His record speaks for itself after all."

"To be honest I think it's primarily Councilor Tevos that has reservations about using the operative, she seems to think he's to mentally unstable for prolonged deployment."

"In her defence your man _did_ beat a cultist to death with his own arm not three missions ago, that tends to cloud a person's judgment a little." countered the Councilman pointedly. "But you are right Shore, this is a war we can't afford to loss an inch of ground on and if it means relying upon this individual to keep the galaxy safe then I will support you in whatever manner I can." the director tilted his head in silent thanks.

"There is still one last thing that I should mention." added Shore his voice shifting back into a business like tone.

"I'm not sober enough for this." murmured the councilman quietly as he gratefully accepted a refill for his glass. "So what else do you want to tell me?"

"Operative DG believes he's managed to track down a solid location for the enemy's current base of operation." the director raised a hand to stop any questioned from his superior as he continued his explanation. "Again I don't know the details, our man didn't go into detail."

"Again," snorted the turian "We really need to get him to write more comprehensive messages."

"Agreed" the gray haired human tapped a finger on his desk in silent contemplation. "But putting that aside I think we need to take pre-emptive measures to start organizing a team to deal with this enemy installation as soon as our operative returns to give his debriefing."

Sparatus ran a hand over his chin in contemplation at the request.

"This isn't something we should really be discussing without my fellow council members being present, but..." he glanced over to the department head "Given the time sensitive nature of this potential operation I can permit you to start mobilizing your OSI assets, along with any other elements that you may need." the councillor rose to his feet "Although I would request that you show caution with who you trust to undertake the actual assignment, we could well do without more people being made aware with what's currently going on in the galaxy at large."

"I understand Councilman." replied the man respectfully as he bowed his head in understanding. "I'll start making the necessary preparations immediately."

"Good, keep me informed." declared Sparatus firmly before he excused himself from the room.

* * *

 _Somewhere in deep space:_

"Am I allowed to at least speak to the Citadel Council?" Demanded Nihlus unhappily from where he'd found himself currently confined to in the improvised brig, which had until recently been a empty room at the back of the sickbay

"No." replied the operative unwaveringly as he stood blocking the doorway. "They have been informed of your breach of protocol, prepare accordingly." the armored human didn't even allow the agent to get off a counter argument before exiting the confined space.

"Are you're sure that this is legal operative?" Commented Captain Anderson uneasily from where he stood in the middle of the medical station. "It was my understanding that council spectres were pretty much immune from prosecution under the current circumstances."

"That is not my concern, he disobeyed a direct order and broke quarantine, until we return to the council he will remain isolated from the rest of the crew, is that clear?" it wasn't a question, despite how it was phrased.

"Fine but I will not have any of my crew held accountable for anything that happened during that mission, as far as I'm concerned all responsibility sits squarely with you two, do I make myself understood agent?"

"Aye Captain." and with that the officer stormed out of site.

"I apologise for my captain operative." stated Doctor Chakwas evenly as she finished her examination of her female commander "He tends to get rather protective of his crew, especially this one here." Shepard had the decency to blush as she hid her face in her hands

"This is for all those times I've gotten you drunk isn't it." muttered the female soldier in clear embarrassment.

"I'll leave that up to you decide." replied the middle aged woman evenly as she turned her attention back towards the heavily armored figure. "But I do hope that Agent Nihlus's behaviour won't be a blemish on the Commanders record, she was only following his orders after all."

"That is not for me to decide, it will be up to the Council to pass judgment on the matter." stated the helmeted man unwaveringly "I would like to have a word with the Commander alone if possible?"

"It would be fine but please try and keep it civil that's all I ask."

"Of course doctor." rumbled the operative coldly, if politely.

"Alright, shout if you need me Commander." the medical specialist said as she removed herself from the conversation.

"What's going to happen to me?" questioned Shepard as she turned grim as soon as the woman departed.

"That's not for me to decide" repeated the imposing man firmly. "I do know that it would look better if you follow my instructions from now on and keep quiet, understood?" the pair fell into an uneasy silence for half a moment. "If I'd truly seen either of you as a serious risk I would have dealt with it by now." he added, earning him a loud snort from the woman as she eased herself off the sickbed.

"And people say that _I've_ got poor people skills." stated the Commander sarcastically. "What's going to happen to Nihlus? I take it by how you were acting on the station that he's in rather deep trouble even by spectre standards."

"The Council will want an explanation from the agent, what happens after that is up to them." explained the operative uncaringly much to Shepards clear frustration.

"Great so the guy who was supposed to be my mentor has got me totally screwed." she grumbled unhappily "My career as a spectre is really not getting off to a good start."

"There are worse starts to a career." declared the man as he turned to walk away.

"Like what?" countered the woman disbelievingly.

"Like mine" replied the operative as he vanished through the open doorway.

* * *

"You better have a damn good reason for your actions Agent Nihlus, because right now from where we're sitting its looks like a serious breach of protocol on your part!" barked Councillor Tevos sharply as she glared at the figure from where the three of them stood in the interrogation room. "What were you thinking!?" the turian flinched under her gaze.

"I lost contact with the OSI operative, I was just trying to ascertain-"

"Do we look like we were born yesterday!" snarled Sparatus as he barged in on the explanation. "You knew perfectly well that this was a covert operation and yet you still broke protocol and disobeyed direct orders from a higher ranking agent to sate your own curiosity!"

"That was not my intention!" countered the spectre heatedly "When a section of the station exploded contact was lost with the council representative, I feared that the operative was either incapacitated or dead and chose to investigate."

"Can you corroborate this statement Commander? Please remember that lying to the Citadel Council is a serious crime." declared the salarian representative pointedly as he glanced over towards the red head that was standing just behind her nominal superior.

"He said that it was better to return with confirmation that your operative was dead then return with no information at all." answered Shepard as she met the councilman's gaze.

"Is that so?" Mused Sparatus as he glanced out of the corner of his eye at his fellow turian, who had gone strangely silent after that statement. "Although it is reassuring to know that you were so considerate as to factor in the consequences of such a loss you still broke quarantine protocols after expressly being ordered not to, that is a serious crime Agent."

"And what was I supposed to do Councilor? I'm pretty sure if I'd returned without my esteemed colleague the Director of the CAC would have gotten you to hang me from one of the Citadel arms as soon as he found out" countered Nihlus tiredly as he ran a hand over his face.

"That doesn't change the fact that you deliberately boarded the station in question, that in and of itself raises all sorts of questions that need answering, Director Shore do you have anything that you wise to add to this enquiry?" stated the asari matron as she turned her head to look at the individual in question who was standing off to one side of the room.

"I would like to ask what the two of them witnessed when they broke quarantine." replied the man gravely "We can decide where we go from there after we have that information."

"I agree with the Director " added the turian representative. "We should find out how much they truly know before we pass judgement."

"I think it would be wise to ask the operative himself what he witnessed and how it affected his own assignment." commented Valern "His testimony and experience would be preferred on such matters."

"I agree." murmured Tevos quietly as she fixed the heavily armoured individual with a questioning stare. "What do you have to say on the matter operative?" the man's visor slowly turned to face the three councillors for a long moment.

"They both have been exposed to the existence of the taint in full and engaged creatures whose threat levels range from gamma through alpha, though the latter was with my assistance." The individuals nodded.

"Did they cause you any complications in your investigation of the Cartagena Station?" questioned Valern.

"To some degree." rumbled the operative "Their sudden appearance was not wanted nor appreciated but I will not lie they did manage to retrieve mission-critical data."

"Is that so?" Murmured the salarian thoughtfully as he glanced back towards the pair "And what data would this be?" the two under suspicion exchanged looks.

"We found a data log of some kind on the station." explained Nihlus after a short silence. "It contained a lot of strange and disturbing information, but the gist of it was that someone had deliberately brought something from Eden Prime to the station in question and somehow tainted the population."

"What was this item exactly?" asked Sparatus with cold interest.

"At first it was a statue of some kind, but it was replaced with some kind of book that seemed to corrupt the local inhabitants." declared the spectre.

"A book?" Repeated Tevos as she raised an eyebrow in clear worry as she glanced over towards the Director "By book do you think it's possible...?"

"That it's the same book as the ones found on Kyleios 4, it sounds like it." muttered the man almost to himself in contemplation.

"Kyleios 4?" The spectre raised a brow plate "Does the loss of that station tie into the loss of this one?" the turian councillor jabbed a talon at the agent in frustration.

"Quiet! You're already in enough trouble as it is!" the guilty party had the common sense to stay quiet.

"Am I to believe that this information the three of you discovered pointed you towards Eden Prime as their base of operations?" interjected Valern coldly "Is that correct?"

"Yes." rumbled the operative stonily as he drew their attentions back towards him.

"We are getting off topic!" snapped the asari matron sharply "We're here to decide what happens to Agent Nihlus and Commander Shepard, not to discuss other matters."

"Shouldn't I have my peoples ambassador here to represent me in that case?" commented the female soldier uneasily as she looked around at the privet space.

"Don't bet on it." countered Director Shore dismissively as he locked eyes with the defendants. "What's happening right now won't leave this room, of that you can have my word." the threat hung clear in the recycled air before its speaker turned back to the council members. "If it pleases the council I think this matter should be left up to my department, I don't think any of us want to dispose of competent individuals, especially if one of them is being considered to be her people's first spectre."

"We understand that director, but you must realize that we have a genuine concern about this information being leaked to the general public." the turian representative interjected sharply. "There would be a galactic wide panic if such an event were to occur."

"And I have made it my mission to prevent such an occurrence councillor, you have my word that the pair will remain silent on the subject." restated the director reassuringly.

"I agree with Director Shore, we should leave the details to him." commented Valern tiredly as he ran a hand over his face. "We still have over matters to attend to after all."

"That's true." muttered Sparatus darkly as he turned back to the waiting pair. "As of now you're both sworn to secrecy from this moment onwards on pain of death, do you understand?" there was a cascade of confirmations from the duo before they were escorted out of the room by Shore, who quickly returned moments later.

"Now that that's out of the way what do you intended to do about this enemy base on Eden Prime Director?" questioned Tevos coolly as she took a sip from her cup of green tea that had up till now been left unattended.

"Due to the nature of the mission I think most of the practical elements of the operation should be left up the individual with the most field experience." countered the gray haired human as everyone glanced towards the armoured figure that stood resolutely in one corner of the space. "What do you think our time frame is Blazkowicz?" the man tilted his head before replying.

"The sooner we get this done the better." rumbled the imposing figure. "We don't know what they were planning with the station but they'll know that it failed."

"So we can expect a counterattack of some sort." murmured Sparatus grimly.

"That or these cultist will go to ground and disappear." added the salarian in a steady tone "Either way, as the operative says we need to deal with this as soon as possible"

"Agreed. How soon can you put a team together Director Shore?" enquired the asari matron as looked towards the head of the CAC.

"I can have a taskforce ready to go by the next day cycle." replied the man "Just waiting on your word." the councillors nodded approvingly.

"Good, get to it then." snapped Valern sharply as the two humans quickly excused themselves moments later.

* * *

"Who are you going to send with me?" challenged the operative as the pair made their way rapidly towards their department headquarters.

"I've sent out recall orders to all OSI operatives not on critical assignments a few days ago; I've also called in some favours so I can send some spectres with you as well."

"The usual ones?" questioned the armoured figure.

"Vasir sends her regards." chuckled the director in clear amusement.

"Who else?" the humour vanished.

"I can send Operatives Chen and Paramo with you; Pietrovich and Barrett are still out on assignment."

"And Dacote, what about him?" a grim look flashed across the man's face at the question, which didn't go unnoticed by his subordinate. "What happened?" he added quietly.

"An infiltration mission went wrong, he got pretty badly chewed up trying to get out, he's in the ICU over at Huerta Memorial in a private room."

"Shit." the operative shook his head in frustration. "So I take it that no one else will get here in time?" the director nodded.

"Unfortunately, but I think I know where we can get some fresh volunteers." Shore declared with an evil grin.

"Is that wise Sir?" murmured the subordinate uneasily as they enter a nearby elevator. "Nihlus is already suspicious as it is, taking him along will only make things complicated." but his complaint was waved aside.

"Well he was going to have to be told what was going on at some point anyway, this way he'll get some hands on experience while he's at it."

"And Shepard?"

"I'll find something for her to do, send her to the spectre headquarters or get her to read up on some old case files or something; keep her out of trouble until this is all over and done with."

"Yes sir." the operative nodded his head in approval. "I'll go and resupply, usual departure point?"

"Yes, I'll have one of our unmarked ships transported you to the target planet." declared the director evenly as they exited out onto the level were their building was located. "I'll send the rest of the strike team to you in the next few hours, go get ready"

"Yes sir." the operative nodded his armoured head slightly in understanding before and setting off at a quick pace.

"He needs to work on his people skills." grumbled Shore as he quickly made his way to his office.

"I put the two people in question in your waiting room sir." stated Miss Reelun his quarian assistant when she saw him come striding into the pristine space, he'd learned long ago that it tended to be wise to have a tech expert on hand for day to day matters. Out sourcing, it works miracles.

"Thank you Reelun." the Director smiled politely towards the suited woman in thanks as he let himself into the next room.

"So Director Shore what's going to happen to us." stated the spectre sarcastically as he lent back into his chair. "Or do we have to guess?" the middle aged human let out a sharp snort.

"If I were you agent I would keep your mouth shut." declared the man as he fixed the pair with a cold glare. "Commander Shepard I know that you were just following order so I'll let you off with a warning, keep your mouth shut." he ignored the glare that was emanating from her "If you weren't a candidate to be humanities first spectre I would be tempted to have you discharged from the Alliance military, but I can't without catching an earful from the ambassador so for the time being I'm sending you to council records, I'll get you the proper authorization, bring me every solid file with the security code CACS-666 please."

"Yes sir." muttered the woman in acknowledgement as she stomped out of the room, which was completely ignored by Shore as he turned his full attention back to the turian in front of him.

"Now, I believe we have some things to discuss."

* * *

 **Apologies for the long wait folks its been rather hectic for both myself and my proofreader, as always a massive shout out to** **Darth Azrael for all their hard work, couldn't do it with out them.**

 ** **Please review if able, it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, it truly does, SO PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.  
****

 ** **Thank you all for reading this I'll see you in the next chapter.****

 ** **Gods-own.****


	6. Chapter 6

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 6

* * *

"Seriously, who keeps paper files in this day and age!" muttered Shepard irritably to herself as the woman traipsed through the deeply confusing and labyrinthine underbelly of the councils Department of Records, when she'd arrived at the building with the appropriate security clearance, the administrator at the front desk had taken one look at the glowing piece of plastic and directed her towards a grubby looking elevator that was set into one wall; that should have been her first warning as she glanced around at the musty shelves that were squeezed into every possible nook and cranny.

"What was I even looking for again?" she stated to herself as she glanced down to the piece of paper held tightly in one hand with the code CACS-666 scribbled on it.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm being trolled" grumbled Shepard irritably.

"Probably because you are" declared someone smugly from just behind her, to give the woman credit she didn't scream like a little child, although she did levitate sever feet into the air.

"What the fuck!" the speaker grinned evilly as they stepped out of a pool of shadow nearby.

"A little bit jumpy aren't you newbie?" Teased the middle aged asari smugly as she strolled up to the human who was glaring at her suspiciously. "Didn't take the newest member for our little group to be so paranoid." the remark generated a questioning look from the Shepard.

"Spectre?" the purple skinned individual grinned.

"Tela Vasir at your service" countered the individual evenly. "And your Commander Jane Shepard, System Alliance correct?"

"That's me" there was a long pause "...So can I help you with something or did you come just to star at the new guy?" the veteran grinned unnervingly.

"Who's to say that I'm not here to do both?" she challenged "Pretty big news when we get a new race joining our ranks, especially when the candidates been marked for..." her smile turned predatory. "More shall we say special assignments" a cold feeling ran down the commanders spine.

"I don't know what you're talking about" stated the human pointedly as she took on a frosty tone. "Now if you'll excuse me I've got a task to complete"

"It's unnerving isn't it?" suddenly declared the spectre over her shoulder as the young women turned to walk away. "The silence I mean, it wasn't so bad when you were up on the presidium, with all those people walking around you, all that noise, but down here, in the quiet, in the gloom, it just set your teeth on edge." there was a low chuckle "Never knowing when something might jump out at you" Vasir slowly came to a stop just behind the frozen figure. "From the dark."

"You know." whispered the woman softly as she locked wide eyes with the asari.

"I know."

* * *

 _Around the same time nearby:_

"Operative."

The hulking figure glanced up from his resupplying to look towards the elderly looking turian that was walking across the store room towards him with the help of a heavy duty cane.

"Docter Faldas" the specialist looked over the pockmarked and scratched armour disapprovingly.

"I would ask that you take better care of your equipment, but we both know that won't happen" the operative shrugged dismissively much to the frustration of the turian in question. "Will you at least make sure that V.E.G.A isn't damaged?"

" **That would be appreciated.** " added the synthetic voice that echoed out of the suits built in speakers. " **Although judging from the operatives past record the chance of that happening is slim.** " the human let out a long sigh.

"Do you need me for something doctor?" he questioned.

"Indeed, I've looked over the recorded footage that the two of you brought back, excluding some more unexpected elements it was undertaken without issue, I would have preferred that you hadn't picked a fight with a Hell Knight armed with only a sledgehammer."

"It was a calculated risk." countered the armored figure as he attached an small ammo box to his belt. "I needed to neutralize the threat before it reached the weaker elements."

"You could have done that without engaging an alpha rated threat in hand to hand combat." stated the specialist sharply. "But we're getting off topic; I have something to give you for field testing, straight from R&D." the humans helmeted face turned around to glare at the scientist.

"This isn't the time for field testing doctor." but the comment was brushed to one side.

"Its fine, the weapon in question is completely combat ready, no need to have any concerns." the older turian indicated to a technician who managed to manhandle a rather large looking metal case up onto the workstation. "But given what you'll likely be facing on Eden Prime the Director and myself thought it might be wise to give you some more powerful ordinance." he flicked the catches away from the hooks. "I give you the Hellshot SR1." the weapon that greeted him was heavily built, with power amplifiers fixed in place around the end of the barrel.

"Energy based?" questioned the operative clinically as he picked up the rifle, turning it over in his hands.

"Yes, you have an argent power pack in the stock and a replaceable one in front of the grip." commented the designer as he pointed out its features.

"What's the purpose of the secondary battery then? Supercharging the shot I presume?" the scientist nodded.

"Indeed, the secondary battery is meant to work in conjunction with the built in amplifiers to deliver a powerful blast of explosive energy to the target." he pointed to the item in question "Useful for dealing with groups of enemies or particularly tough opponents." the armoured human seemed to approve as he raised the rifle to his shoulder to look down the sites.

"Preferred range?"

"Mid to long, it can function up close but I would recommend switching out to something else just in case." the man grunted in acknowledgment.

"Fine I'll use it." the turian's face crack into his peoples version of a smile. "I'll need extra power packs though."

"Of course." the scientist pointed to a small box. "They're right there." the operative nodded once more as he got back to the business of rearming himself.

* * *

 _In the Archives:_

"What do you want?" growled the woman coldly as the pair squired off in the narrow passageway.

"Nothing really, just wanted to let you know that for all the hard little soldier act that your putting on at the moment I know your just a little child on the inside." Shepard let out a low curse as she took a step towards the spectre. "And that's what's going to keep you alive." the commander blinked.

"Excuse me?" the asari's smug grin slowly slid off her face as it was replaced by a grim scowl.

"Your stepping into some dark waters and you don't even know it." the matron leaned forwards until her face was almost touching the red heads "I know you went on a mission with the big guy in green honey." Shepard noticeably flinched. "But you got no idea just what a shit storm you've stepped into." Vasir glanced down at the piece of paper held tightly in the humans right hand "What code did you get?"

"CACS-666"

"Ow, you got handed the unedited ones." chuckled the spectre as she took point, leading the younger agent down between towering stacks of paper printed copy of field reports. "I took part in some of those by the way." she came to a halt in front of lengthy section of shelving. "Here we go; all the CACS-666 number case reports." opening a box she pulled out a sealed folder "The delta labs on Therum? that's a good read." she rummaged a bit more "The Pheiros argent facility, remember that one." she paused as she pulled out a few more heavy duty reading materials. "Here you go, I've cherry picked some of the more interesting missions for you to gloss up on." the matron drop the mountain of paperwork down into the human outstretched hands. "I would keep an eye out of the ones that feature DG, those ones are always a fun read."

"DG?" the woman raised an eyebrow in mild confusion.

"Doom Guy, you know big fella, green armour, penchant for excessive violence?" the asari grinned "Nice ass to." Shepard grimaced slightly.

"How can you tell?" the asari took on a smug air.

"I have my ways." leaving that comment well alone the commander glanced back down at the weighty load.

"What am I supposed to be looking for?"

"You'll know newbie, you'll know" Chuckled Vasir as she walked away into the gloom.

* * *

 _Back in the director's office:_

"This is bullshit!" Nihlus slammed a taloned hand down forcefully onto the tabletop in front of him. "I won't accept this!"

"You will accept it agent and you will like it." countered the head of the CAC coldly. "You knew the risks involved when you ignored that order and now your living with the consequences. You made your bed, lie in it." the turian let out a low growl.

"Don't push me human, I'm still a spectre." Shore let out a dismissive snort.

"Am I supposed to be impressed? There's a hundred others just like you out there in the galaxy, the only difference between them and you at the moment agent is that they weren't stupid enough to stick their noses into shit that should have been left well enough alone!" the gray haired man jabbed a finger at the reluctant individual. "Now you're caught on this nightmare ride for better or worse so get used to it." there was a long silence as the pair exchanged frosty glares.

"You've made an enemy Director. I hope you can handle that." the aforementioned figure let out another snort.

"Join the queue Nihlus but I'll warn you it's a long ass one. Now shut up and look over your next assignment." he stated evenly, the remark wasn't missed the agent in question.

"Do I even want to fucking know?" muttered the turian darkly.

"Probably not, but for everybody's sake I'm going to anyway." intoned Shore humorlessly as he pulled out a data pad. "Here are your orders." the agent accepted it reluctantly, casting an unhappy eye of the lines of data.

"You can't be serious." he muttered in quiet disbelief as his gaze dart from side to side. "This is a suicide mission!"

"Hardly, this undertaking falls within OSI safety parameters, you'll be working with not only three other OSI operatives but a couple of your fellow spectres as well." countered the director steadily. "You'll be given appropriate equipment and a vessel for fast evac, I'd hardly call this a suicide mission." Nihlus didn't look reassured in the slightest.

"If this assignment is anything like the last one then it well as might be." snapped the agent as he finished reading. "I take it that Mr. Doom is leading this little operation?"

"Correct as the most senior field operative, Operative DG will take command of ground operations" that didn't seem to go down to well with the spectre but he couldn't really refuse by this point.

"Fine, who are the ever spectres?"

"Tela Vasir and Bo Dolon" the turian groaned loudly.

"Spirits protect not Bo, that salarian could take an ear of a corpse" he whined tiredly.

"Agent Dolon can be rather talkative at time but on assignment you won't find a better tech expert" reassured the human. "No I think we've talked long enough for the time being, if you'll follow me we'll head down to the department hanger to meet the rest of the team"

The turian nodded grimly.

"Fine." he fell in behind Shore as the pair headed for a nearby elevator.

* * *

 _A few minutes later:_

"Got to admit not a bad set up here." muttered Nihlus as he glanced around at the rather smart looking private hanger that he currently found himself walking through, heavily modified UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttles dotted its length as the turians attention was drawn towards one particular craft that squatted like a cockroach in the middle of the lofty space.

"Here's your ride, it'll take you to the vessel that'll transport you to Eden Prime." stated Shore as he gestured towards the shuttle "And judging from the noise coming out of it, I'm willing to bet at least some of your teammates are inside." he added in a coldly professional tone.

"Why do I get the feeling that there's an understatement in there somewhere." muttered the spectre to himself quietly.

"Chen, Paramo, stop arguing and get out here!" the order was quickly obeyed by the operatives in question as the hatch to reveal an imposing looking human woman, who was quickly accompanied by one of the most bulky krogan that Nihlus had ever seen.

"Sir." the tanned mountain of muscle grunted in polite greeting as it cast a calculating gaze over him. "A new recruit?"

"I suppose you could say that Operative." answered the director evenly. "Chen, Paramo, Agent Nihlus, council spectre" the dark haired woman turned her full attention back towards him.

"Nihlus as in Nihlus Kryik? Damn you must have messed up badly to get sent down to hell with us." Shore let out a slight chough.

"He crashed an operation being carried out by DG." the pairs eyes went wide as the krogan let out a low whistle.

"If nothing else turian you've got a quad." he rumbled "last fool I remember doing something like that ended up with his jaw getting ripped clean off." the woman grimaced at the memory.

"Don't remind me, took me a week to get that assholes blood out of my hair." she muttered unhappily.

"Not the worst thing you've had to get out of your hair considering what you do in your off duty hours." stated an all too familiar voice from just over his shoulder.

"Tela."

"Lorelei." the two individuals glared at each over.

"When are you gonna get that stick out of your ass" snapped the human.

"When you answer your true calling and start doing porn." countered the asari matron.

"Here we go again." muttered Paramo as he rolled his eyes.

"Are they always like this?" enquired Nihlus uneasily as the pair descended into a verbal shit flinging contest.

"They both have...combative personalities." commented the CAC head evenly as he watched the two figures bitching at each other like old ladies. "But as much as I enjoy a good cat fight there is a time and a place for all things." he clapped his hands together loudly. "That's enough!" the pair broke off.

"Nice to see that nothing changes," sighed a salarian who came striding over. "Paramo, Director Shore"

"Agent Dolon." the other spectre on the team glanced around and briefly paused as he caught sight of him.

"Nihlus."

"Bo" there was a long silence that was only broken by the heavy thud, thud, thud of footfalls that echoed out over the surrounding space.

"Better late than never big guy!" yelled Vasir teasingly as the armored form of Doom Guy came stomping into view.

"Sir." the massive human nodded his helmets head towards the director before turning to look at the others. "Equipment check, go in twenty." there was a chorus of confirmation from the more experienced members of the team as they started moving around the assembled crates.

"Agent Nihlus needs some more appropriate equipment, I've taken the precaution of supplying some of the more practical items from our armory, make sure he's ready operative." the imposing human grunted as he glanced over towards the spectre as Shore departed.

"Paramo" the krogan looked up from cleaning his rather terrifying looking dual cylinder chain gun. "Fix it."

"Seriously?" there was a long pause before the towering figure let out a long sigh "Fine, get over here turian we're wasting time." which left the massive human standing alone in the center of the organized chaos.

"It's always nice to see you chat." chuckled Vasir as she came striding over, her slender figure encased in what looked like some rather potent body armor, layers of plate lay over the top of a formfitting environmental suit, giving it an almost medieval appearance, as if a knight of old had step out from a page of history.

"Stow your gear we go in fifteen." stated the operative coldly as he stepped past her and into the waiting shuttle.

"Why do you keep bothering him Tela, you think after the last time that you'd learned your lesson." commented Chen from where she sat, filling a backpack full of explosives.

"Oh come on it wasn't that bad." retorted the asari matron steadily, much the disbelieving snort of her fellow spectre.

"You broke into the OSI's personnel block and attempted to accost him while he was taking a shower." stated Dolon humorlessly as he finished checking the seals on his own protective suit.

"I like a man that has secrets." countered Vasir "That and a nice ass." that earned her a sharp snort from the fellow human in the group.

"And how did that work out for you? Because from what I heard you had to escape butt naked into an air vent to prevent the man in question from cracking your thick head like a nut." the asari shrugged indifferently.

"Doesn't matter I still got to see what was important." she grind wickedly "And I liked what I saw" the assembled individuals let out loud groans.

"I did not need that image before a combat drop." rumbled Paramo from across the landing zone.

"What's wrong big guy don't like the idea of seeing your superior naked?" cackled Vasir mockingly, but her laughter was cut short as the towering figure turned around to face her.

"He's not the problem, just imagining you with everything sagging out is enough to make me want to vomit."

"What did you say you fuck!" snarled the spectre as she let a wave of biotic power role out from around her.

"That's enough Vasir!." Nihlus's stern tone quickly drew the biotic irritation as she round on him.

"I don't take orders from you turian." she spat venomously.

"No you don't, but you do from the Council and I wonder how they'd feel if they found out how you're acting right now?" it was a poorly concealed threat, but the individual didn't care.

"Fine I'll play nice but I won't forget this." muttered the matron as she stalked away.

"You seem to have a knack for pissing off dangerous people spectre." comment the krogen lowly as helped Nihlus get into a bulky looking suit of armor. "I don't know if I should be impressed or worried."

"I thought you krogan liked a challenge." grumbled the agent as he fiddled with one of the straps, the long silence that followed that statement caused the turian to glanced up to see the disbelieving look that had plastered itself across the aliens face.

"I have no problem pissing off the asari, she's weak, but challenging the team leader is suicide." declared the giant grimly. "I have witnessed that human fight, if I'd not seen it with my own eyes I'd have thought one of my people was living inside that protective shell."

"That's rather high praise coming from a krogan." countered Nihlus as he raised a brow plate in mild surprise.

"He has well and truly earned it." rumbled Paramo handed one of the heavy looking assault rifles to him. "Take this, judging by who's here it would be better if we stay out of the front rank."

"Because it's too dangerous?" snorted the spectre.

"No, because you don't want to get in between the leader and his foes." answered krogan as he hefted up his on massive weapon.

* * *

"Ready?" the questioned echoed out around the crawled space as Doom Guy looked around at the assembled individuals that were crammed into the narrow Kodiak.

"Green across the board." replied Chen as she finished strapping herself in beside him.

"Go" the order was carried out with textbook efficiency as the engines roared into life as the shuttle dusted off the landing pad.

"Let's hope that this mission is easier than the last one." Muttered the turian slightly to loudly.

"Don't bet on it." replied the other members of the team.

* * *

 _Around the same time on Zakera Ward:_

"Look for the last time you can't take those crates out of storage without the right permit!" snapped officer Vakarian sharply as he glanced over at one of his fellow C-Sec officer with growing irritation, he'd been on his way back to headquarters when a local dispatch had come in over the radio asking for nearby assistance and being the upstanding individual that he was he'd jumped at the chance for some action, in hindsight that might have been a mistake.

"But my customers demanded freshness, how can I promise them that if my products are left sweating in some warehouse!" countered the sea green salarian unhappily.

"Sir we keep telling you that all the storage facilities here on the Citadel are temperature controlled, your fruit will be just fine." declared the newbie officer tiredly as he ran a taloned hand over his plates in clear frustration.

"Do you have any idea how many credits asari are willing to pay for a rip bogman fruit!" snapped the wholesaler angrily "I don't understand why you people won't just let me deliver my product to my customers!"

"Because it needs to be cleared by citadel security for contraband first!" growled Garrus coldly as he took a step past the protesting salarian. "And judging from how you're acting I'm suspecting that's something that you don't want." The tension in the air became thick enough to cut with a knife. The salarian turned and grabbed something from his vehicle.

"Shit!" cursed the turian as he dived to one side as the first mass effect round cut through the air, tearing a chunk out of the rookie, who fell crying in pain as blood started pouring out of his leg.

"You won't take me alive shit stain!" snapped the smuggler as he darted off deeper into cluttered building.

"Officer down! Need immediate backup and medical assistance!" bellowed Vakarian into his com-link as he returned fire at the suspect, who ducked out of sight behind a towering stack of crates.

"This is central, request acknowledged, dispatching medical team and reinforcements. ETA five minutes." stated the asari over the line.

"Understood, Vakarian out." muttered the turian as he dragged his fellow officer out of the line of fire and applied medi-gel.

"I'm fine sir, don't worry about me, go after him." stuttered the newbie between pained breaths. "He's getting away."

"Sure?" the younger turian nodded silently, the painkillers already taking hold. "Ok stay out of sight, don't engage unless directly threatened." instructed the veteran as he quickly moved across the open deck, the inside of the warehouse was poorly lit with pools of shadows dominating large sections of the cramped space.

"This is your only chance, give yourself up! You're not getting out of here alive any other way!" his voice echoed over the stacks of goods that were stuff in all around him, with only the salarians sudden terrified screams to break the silence. "Shit!" the officer took off at a fast sprint into the gloom, with only the pained shrieks of the criminal to direct him.

* * *

 _In the Citadel Archives:_

"Commander Shepard you have an incoming call." the buildings built in security V.I. stated through the woman's omni-tool. "Do you wish to except?"

"Who's it from?" questioned the red head uneasily as quickly took a deep sip from her coffee cup, she'd well and truly earned it in her opinion judging from what she'd already read in the files.

"The security clearance code is from Director Shore of the Council Accountability Committee." answered the artificial tone.

"Put him through." she sighed.

"Commander." the man's voice was strangely even as if he was deliberately controlling himself.

"Sir," there was a long pause. "How can I be of service?"

"There's something that I want you to look into." came the reply.

* * *

[CITADEL COUNCIL CENTRAL ARCHIVES: ACCESS GRANTED]

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[DATA REQUEST RECEIVED: SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED]

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[SECURITY CLEARANCE RECEIVED]

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[DATA REQUEST INITIATED]

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[ARCHIVE SEARCH RESULTS]

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[Transcript Of Audio Recording Of Council Accountability Committee Meeting]

[Date Stamp: 10/6/2159]

[CAC Director Melcius]: So what do you think of him, and more importantly what should we do with him?

[Operations Officer Shore]: Honestly? The only thing we can do, recruit him as soon as possible.

[Councillor Tevos]: Is that wise? We all saw the camera footage from the man's helmet, he is clearly no longer fully sane.

[Operations Officer Shore]: Did you expect him to be? There were more than fifteen hundred people on Gagarin Station; the initial hell wave turned more than two thirds of them into twisted abominations that killed every other living thing besides him onboard. [sound of a match being struck, followed by several puffs] I don't care about his mental state, all I care about is his dedication to getting the job done, if it means turning a blind eye to his more ruthless approach then that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

[CAC Director Melcius]: That is not your decision to make Mr. Shore! We simply called you here for your opinion on this "Blazkowicz" and how he should be handled, he is currently being held in our custody after all.

[Operations Officer Shore]: And my recommendation is that we recruit him. Director, you brought me into this organization because of my experience with being part of the original expeditions on mars and my experience is telling me we need this man on our side.

[CAC Director Melcius] : ...I will take it under consideration for now.

[Councillor Tevos]: Melcius you can't be serious!

[CAC Director Melcius]: We must look at all angles Councilor, but I would like the other survivor's opinion on this matter, Doctor? [sounds of metal hitting metal]

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]: **_Good evening everyone_.**

* * *

 **Apologies for the long wait folks its been rather hectic for both myself and my proofreader, as always a massive shout out to** **Darth Azrael for all their hard work, couldn't do it with out them.**

 ** **Please review if able, it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, it truly does, SO PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.  
****

 ** **Thank you all for reading this I'll see you in the next chapter.****

 ** **Gods-own.****


	7. Chapter 7

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 7

* * *

 _The Councils private chambers:_

"I apologize for requesting a meeting on such short notice councilors but a situation has developed that I believe you should be made aware of." stated Director Shore as he stood before the three representatives, who were not looking happy in the slightest.

"I take it by the short notice that something has happened, I assume that it has something to do with the strike force on its way to Eden Prime?" questioned Councillor Tevos pointedly as she fixed the human with a long stare.

"I afraid not councillor" Shore grimaced slightly as he court the looks of growing concern that darted across his superiors faces at the comment "There seems to be a situation..." he paused briefly before continuing "Here on the Citadel" colour seemed to drain out of the assembled listeners faces as the heard the statement, Tevos in particular seemed to have completely lost the ability to speck as her eyes dilated in barely contained fear.

"I want exact details, what precisely are we looking at Shore?" demanded Sparatus grimly as he slipped into a military mindset, the head of the CAC took a deep inhale of breath before turning the representatives attentions towards the holoscreen mounted on a nearby wall, which flashed into life.

"As of twenty minutes ago one of the Zakera Wards many warehouse has been locked down after an altercation with C-sec, the surrounding area has be cordoned off to keep the general public away for their own safety." explained the man as a three dimensional copy of the sector in question appeared before them on the display.

"What was the nature of this altercation?" enquired the salarian representative coldly as he tore his gaze away from the image.

"Two C-sec officers confronted what they suspected was a smuggler, a confrontation ensued, one of the officers was injured, the other gave chase after the criminal, a short time later the wounded officer heard what he describe as blood curdling screaming echoing out from somewhere deep within the building, he contacted headquarters and Executor Palin was quickly informed, he informed me under the assumption that it was a wild animal attack, I think differently."

"Are we sure that this isn't just a wild animal of some sort, if you don't mind me saying so aren't you just jumping to assumptions yourself director?" countered the asari matron bluntly.

"With all due respect councillor no I'm not." replied Shore as he fixed Tavos with unwavering glare "After everything that has happened recently I'm not taking any chances with your safety and the safety of everyone on this station." the turian nodded approvingly.

"We wouldn't expect anything less from you director." he stated "Who exactly are you sending to investigating this incident?" the man slowly slipped a cigar into one corner of his mouth before replying.

"I've sent Commander Shepard to investigate; she's already had experience dealing with this kind of problem and should be able to deal with the situation without much fuss."

"And what if the situation is beyond the good commander's abilities?" countered councilor Valern sharply. "I hope you've got a backup plan Director Shore."

"I do sir." replied the gray haired man resolutely "I have several rapid response teams on hand to deal with any situation that Shepard can't handle." the human let out a low puff of smoke "Although I will be the first to admit that the teams in question are no OSI operatives they'll have no problem getting the job done."

"Not that you believe them needed." added the asari pointedly "I'm not criticizing director, I just have some rather understandable concerns." Shore let out a long sigh as ran a hand across the back of his head.

"May I speak plainly ma'am?" the matron blinked in mild surprise at the unusually shift in the demeanour of the man in front of her as she nodded her head in silent approval. "Thank you." he took a long puff on his cigar before continuing "You gave me the mandate to deal with this incursion in any manner I saw fit, while keeping the general public in the dark, now I have done my best to honour that mandate but as it stands at this moment, I cannot do any more without endangering the public or failing my assigned task." Shore grimaced at the contemplation "If I'm proven wrong then I'll take full responsibility and step down."

"If your proven wrong Shore, then they'll been nothing to step down from." muttered Sparatus bitterly "Given the current nature of the ongoing situation here on the Citadel, I think my colleagues will agree with me when I say that I want you to do what you think is necessary to deal with this crisis, we'll deal with whatever public fallout if and when it appears." the others nodded in agreement

"Just try and keep the damage to a minimum if you please?" added Valern "Nothing will catch peoples attentions more than explosions of that I can guarantee."

"I would presume you've taken measures to make sure that we're protected." commented Tevos.

"I've got two teams on hand and I'll be here in person to lead them if anything happens of that you have my word" reassured the man as he looked at the three bureaucrats.

"Then all we can say is that we hope Commander Shepard lives up to your expectations director, for all our sakes." stated Sparatus grimly.

* * *

 _Somewhere on Zakera Ward:_

"I just had to say yes didn't I?" muttered the red head to herself as she strolled through the check point set up by C-sec, some of the officers had made comment but as soon as she'd flashed her spectre credentials at them they'd quickly fallen silent and let her through, not that it was a full license, but they didn't know that.

"I take it you're the specialist that Shore said he was sending?" declared a middle aged looking turian sharply from where he stood by a official hovercar, a holographic map rotating on its heads-up display. "Well I hope your better than the rapid response team that we sent in fifteen minutes ago."

"What happened?" questioned the woman uneasily, a full, trained rapid response team was nothing to sniff at, whatever was inside that warehouse was definitely dangerous, maybe Director Shore was right in his suspicions after all.

* * *

 _Half an hour ago:_

"There's something that I want you to look into." Stated the unseen director of the CAC over the secure com-link "There's been a situation down on Zakera Ward." as soon as she heard the word situation the woman found herself being dragged back to that desolate station, where the only thing waiting around the next corner was some fresh, jabbering horror, she could feel the blood pumping through her veins, hear the thundering of her heart in her ears.

"Commander are you listening?" and then it was gone as reality came crashing back down around her.

"Yes sir." there was a long pause and for a split second Shepard thought the older gentleman was reconsidering his previous decisions about her, but after a long moment the director's tone echoed out of the speakers once again.

"Go to the warehouse on Zakera Ward, find out what's going on, if it's nothing I want you to handle it personally, if it's something more..." there was another pause "Serious I want you to check it out and then call in the rapid response teams that I'll have on standby, they'll take care of the heavy lifting, you'll deal with the more delicate matters, get it done Commander."

"Yes sir." replied Shepard quickly as she attempted to regain some form of professionalism as the line went dead.

* * *

 _In the present:_

"We got reports from an injured officer of strange noises emanating from this building, the same building that another officer had just only vanished into, judging from the fact the officers in question were dealing with a suspected smuggler I came to the conclusion that some kind of rare or unknown life form is now loss on the station"

"Has anyone had a visual on the creature?" queried Shepard evenly as she glanced over towards the looming form of the depot nearby.

"No, that's why we sent in our people first, wanted to get things sorted out before they got to complicated" explained the C-sec captain "In hindsight that appears to have been the wrong decision, no sooner had alpha team stepped inside the building they were reporting interference on their comms, looks like the creature might have smashed open some argent energy cells, whole place has low level background argent radiation, must be playing havoc with the tech."

"Yeah, must have." muttered the red head quietly as all too unpleasant memories of the last time argent energy caused interference came to the forefront of her mind. "How many officers were in alpha team?" the turian took on a thoughtful air.

"Seven specialists, led by a sergeant, all are veteran C-sec with more than ten years under their belts each, all had military training." the captain looked grim. "I can't believe that all of them have been taken by some wild creature, no matter how strange."

"You'd be surprised" muttered the commander under her breath, in a louder tone she added "I'll keep an eye out for your team captain, is there anything else I should know before I go in?" the tired looking man nodded as he took a long drag of his cigarette.

"Sure, the officer that went in originally, he's the son of an old friend of mine, the son's a bit of a loose cannon, likes to play hard and fast with regulations but he's damn gifted so the executor gives him a bit of breathing room normally, I owe the father my life so if you could find out what happened to Vakarian, I'd really appreciate it." there was a dark undercurrent in the statement, one that didn't go unnoticed by the woman.

"You're not expecting him to have made it are you?" she countered, the captain grimaced slightly.

"Garrus is good, damn good, but whatever is in there is bad fucking news and he's been in there the longest with that thing so no, I don't expect him to have survived." it physically seemed to hurt the turian to admit it but he seemingly brushed off and carried on with his professional duties as befitted his position. "Just find out what happened to him, I owe his family that much."

"I'll see what I can do." the officer nodded gratefully as he beckoned some of his subordinates over towards him.

"Sergeant, please escort the specialist to the door, the human is going in." the hard looking asari passed a fleeting glance over her before grunting in acknowledgement, backing out a set of orders towards the rest of her team, who quickly fell in on either side of the commander as the little troop quickly made its ways across the opens space towards the waiting structure.

"Teams one and two, standby we're cracking it open!" bellowed the sergeant as there came the soft whine of mass effect generators, the heavy looking door slowly pulled about to reveal the gloomy interior to the world, only now accentuated by the unmistakable stench of death that wafted out to greet them.

"Fuck that stinks." muttered one of the officers as someone gagged.

"Just letting you know human we're going to lock the doors after you so your best bet to get out is to find a hard point somewhere inside the building to jack your omni-tool into, that'll allow you to communicate with us without any problems." commented the blue skinned veteran.

"Any ideas on where one of those will be?" Enquired Shepard quietly as she pulled the bulky looking shotgun from her back, a gift from Director Shore, he'd said that it might be of more use in the current situation than her usual arsenal, something that she was deeply grateful for considering what she'd seen and heard in the last few minutes of her arrival.

"Your best bet is the manager's office, at the back, first floor, there should be access up somewhere, hard to miss" stated the asari. "Just keep your fucking wits about you; we could do without losing anyone else to this thing, whatever it is."

"I'll try my best." muttered the red head as she pumped the shotgun, loading a slug round into the firing chamber.

"You sure you don't want something a bit more modern?" questioned one of the turian officers as she glanced at the weapon.

"This thing sends a slug down range that could put a krogan on it ass, I think I'll be fine thanks." chuckled Shepard grimly as she stepped over the threshold and as soon as she did the atmosphere changed, a sharp, stinging coldness slipped down her spine and an all too familiar sensation crept to the fore once more.

"Alright the specialist is in close it up!" snapped the matron sharply as the officers as one step back as the blast doors pulled shut, sealing the commander in with her imagination and a loaded gun.

"Well out of the frying pan and into the fire." commented the woman to herself as she slowly moved off into the gloom, carefully checking her angles as she went, the nature of the battlefield didn't help matters; the tall, vertical landscape lent itself to predators not the prey and she knew that in this instance that she was well and truly the prey.

"I need to get some height, staying down here will only get me killed." she added, a statement that was quickly reinforced by the gory display that greeting her around the next stack of crates, what might have been once a C-sec officer judging from the bodies insignia, lay mangled and broken up against a wall, its upper half a sickening blue mess of mangled meat and undersuit; it was not pleasant, not pleasant in the slightest.

"It...it looks like that something's been _chewing_ on him." muttered Shepard as her stomach retched slightly on impulse. "Poor bastard." she glanced around carefully, picking up the telltale signs of footprints on metal leading away at a quick pace from the carnage, and judging from the fact that they passed through the gore led to only one conclusion.

"Looks like we've got a survivor, maybe it's this Garrus the captain was telling me about, or maybe a member of C-Sec rapid response." the commander slowly moved off making sure to move as softly as possible, if surviving Cartagena station had taught Shepard one thing; it was keeping a low profile at all cost.

* * *

 _Somewhere far far away:_

" _ **I take it that everything is going to plan?**_ " the formless voice echoed out of the gloom that seemed to dominate the cavernous space.

"Partly." murmured the lone figure that stood surrounded by the darkness "There have been some setbacks."

" ** _The loss of the station was not wholly unexpected, that particular watchdog has been a thorn in our side for some time._** " there was a short pause " ** _But his new allies were unexpected and unwelcome, we could do without extra pieces joining the board, we hope you've taken steps to deal with them?_** " the hooded form nodded softly.

"Nihlus is travelling with the watchdog as we speak, with any luck he should die on Eden Prime, as for the human commander..."

 _ **"Yes, the human.**_ " declared the unseen speaker harshly " ** _We know of this Jane Shepard, many are there that hold a grudge against her, quite a feat indeed, something that we don't acknowledge lightly._** "

"Do you wish for me to corrupt her? Bring her into the fold?" questioned the figure softly.

" ** _Perhaps, but one such as her will need a special touch, for now continue with the ritual, how goes the site on the fortress, there was a disturbance._** " there was a short pause from the listener before they replied.

"Someone interrupted the ritual before they were finished, so the gateway was not complete, which is unfortunate, but it is not a total loss in its place they were able to summon some allies."

" _ **We are aware, the fear and death can be felt clearly, we approve, it is most interesting to see the female commander interfering in this matter, it is time to see if this human can pose a really threat without the watchdogs presences**_ " counter the chilling tone venomously. " ** _But for now complete the main ritual even without the gateway it will have the desired effect and remember we do not except fail, do you understand Arterius?_** " it wasn't a question and the turian knew it.

"I will not fail."

" _ **We will see.**_ "

* * *

 _Back on the Citadel:_

"Ow shit ow shit ow shit!" shouted Garrus loudly over the roar of battle as the two figures darted franticly down a side passageway, a looming outline close on their heels.

"Will you just shut up and run!" snapped the human woman angrily from his side as the pair thundered in through a poorly closed door.

"What do you think I'm doing!?" countered the C-sec officer irritably as he let off a burst of rifle fire over his shoulder at the snorting creature that was lumbering angrily after them, its jagged tusks slick with the dark blue blood of a fellow turian. The rounds slammed into the horrific monster, but to his growing annoyance it only seemed to make the beast more angry, if that was at all possible, as it let out an enraged bellow.

"Well that didn't work!" muttered the redhead under her breath as she caught sight of the attempt.

"I'd like to see you try!" countered the officer sharply as they ducked into a narrow corridor, narrowing the things massive jaws that snapped at the empty air just behind them.

* * *

 _Twenty minutes earlier:_

Garrus let out a low hiss as he crept quietly down a long corridor, towering stacks of crates looming over him. By this point he was determined not to be eaten by whatever was lurking in this spirit forsaken warehouse.

"Got to get a warning out." muttered the turian to himself as he edged slowly forward, he'd only court glimpses of the beast but judging from the fact that it was shoulder deep into what was left of the salarian smuggler, what he did know was the creature was big and meat eating, a sudden burst of static over the com-link snapped his attention away from self-contemplation.

"...Come in...Vak- …rian...do...y-..." the broken sentence drew a slow hiss from Garrus as he picked up the unmistakable scratching sounds of the things claws digging into the metal flooring, the beast seemingly picked up on it as well and sauntered off, apparently bored trying to get to a potential meal.

"Shit." the C-sec officer set off at a brisk pace back towards the front doors.

* * *

 _Around the same time nearby:_

"Check your angles Kesan!" snapped Sergeant Terscus as he glanced over his shoulder at the veteran asari officer, who nodded as she moved back into formation. "Calril, Mutigius with me on point, the rest of you keep an eye on our six, this is an apex predator, it'll try to catch us by surprise."

"Yes sir" murmured the rest of the rapid response team as they swiped their weapons over the cramped landscape.

"Did you hear that?" muttered a human as the group came to a slow halt, the sound of thumping foot falls echoing over the metal work as a lone figure came sprinting into view.

"Its Vakarian!" stated someone pointedly as the turian darted towards them "Hey Vakarian!"

"Fall back! Fall back!" bellowed the individual as a split second later a low growl rumbled out from nearby as out of the corner of their vision a lumbering former came surging towards them out of the shadows, jaws snapping.

* * *

Garrus flinched visibly as the first officer went down screaming, the horned creature ripping clean through an asari's leg, sending the severed limp spiraling to the floor in a shower of blood.

"Fire at will weapons free!" yelled the sergeant as the bone plated animal lashed out with a set of razor sharp claws, gouging into another unfortunate officer who let out a breathless splutter as their lifeless body toppled backwards onto the floor.

"I'll fucking kill you!" roared an older looking matron as he let fly with a blast of biotic energy that sent the monster staggering backwards, but it only seemed to make the beast more enraged as it turned a glowing, blood red eye towards the security team member.

"I fucking hate you so much right now." muttered her superior as one of the remaining members of his team unloaded on the creature.

* * *

[CITADEL COUNCIL CENTRAL ARCHIVES: ACCESS GRANTED]

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[DATA REQUEST RECEIVED: SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED]

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[SECURITY CLEARANCE RECEIVED]

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[DATA REQUEST INITIATED]

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[ARCHIVE SEARCH RESULTS]

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[Physical Character Evaluation and Psychological Profiling Report]

[Date Stamp: 01/07/2159]

[Author: Doctor Tevilra Pesaburo, Council Accountability Committee Chief Medical Officer]

[Co-author: Doctor Vonar Loralano, Council Accountability Committee appointed psychiatrist]

To Director Melcius.

Sir as per the requests of Operations Officer Shore and yourself I have conducted along with my team an in-depth assessment of **[Name Redacted]** who from this point onwards will be referred to in the document by the codename 'Doom Guy'.

Overview:

This document will be divided into two halves, the first will be a physical character evaluation undertaken by myself, as wells as a selected number of medical associates, the second half will be my evolution of the report handed to me by Doctor Vonar Loralano, along with some of my personal thoughts on the information provided within.

Section:1 Physical Character Evaluation

The subjects physical state outwardly fits the standard pattern for alliance marines, well developed physical conditioning, along with permitted gene therapy has led to a body that while not flexible has above average resistance to long periods of intense physical activity, in the case of Doom Guy however the individual demonstrates a much higher than normal threshold, both in mental tolerance and the accumulation of lactic acid build up in his muscles, under testing my team discovered that the subject showed a nearly seventy five percent increase in operational durability while undergoing physical examination.

This was not the only discrepancy discovered, the subject was able to demonstrate higher than expected weight carrying capacity, with a nearly fifty percent increase in load over the standard marine template with little to no sign of discomfort or decrease in operational capacity shown.

After this was discovered I ordered a string of tests to see what was going on with codename Doom Guy the results of which were both fascinating and deeply alarming at the same time.

Director Melcius to be brief, the subject in his current state is the result of extensive gene therapy, well above and beyond what is permitted by the Citadel Council at this moment in time. If I were to permitted to speculate on the matter, the data combined with the seemingly improved optical reaction time suggest a deliberate attempt to produce some form of super soldier by the Systems Alliance. Now, at this time it is unknown if such an action was carried out with the approval of their central government, but judging from the nature of Jump Zero as a major R&D facility it could be speculated that certain operations were undertaken without the full knowledge and backing of the human government, it could be...

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 _[SYSTEM LOCKDOWN INITIATED]_

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 _[SECURITY CLEARANCE CODE DEFECT DETECTED]_

 _._

 _[SUSPECTED HACKING ATTEMP IN PROGRESS]_

 _._

 _[SYSTEM COUNTER MEASURES ACTVATED]_

 _._

 _[STAND BY]. . ._

* * *

 **Apologies for the long wait folks its been rather hectic for both myself and my proofreader, as always a massive shout out to** **Darth Azrael for all their hard work, couldn't do it with out them.**

 ** **Please review if able, it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, it truly does, SO PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.  
****

 ** **Thank you all for reading this I'll see you in the next chapter.****

 ** **Gods-own.****


	8. Chapter 8

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 8

.

* * *

 _Somewhere in deep space:_

The private vessel hurtled through the void as it thundered towards Eden Prime, its rather lethal collection of passengers stowed safely in its hold, not that it did anything to calm the building tension that was leaking out of the assembled members of the improvised rapid response team.

"I swear I'm going to brain that stupid blue bitch!" snarled Chen venomously as she stomped down a narrow corridor on the undercover craft; they'd each been given private quarters for their personal use, not that many were so inclined, pre-mission preparations tended to have a ritual of their own and with this group it was no different.

"You shouldn't let her get under your skin operative." commented Agent Dolon as he came striding down the passageway in the opposite direction, several large boxes of what looked like demolitions held confidently in his hands. "It's what she wants." the woman let out a loud huff as she took one of the containers out of the spectres grasp.

"I know that," muttered Chen unhappily as the pair made their way back down towards the cargo bay. "But she's such a massive dick."

"I won't argue, but right now we've got more pressing issues to focus on..." the salarian paused ever so slightly "And you never know, she might get eaten by something if we're lucky."

"I heard that asshole!" the pair broken into sniggering giggles as the asari's less then humorous voice echoed out across the open space.

"Control your volume." rumbled Paramo irritably from where he sat, tinkering with his chain gun "I would appreciate some peace and quiet, ancestors know it's going to be in short supply when we get planet side."

"Seconded." agreed Bo as he pulled an empty bandolier out of a nearby crate "Do we have any more time delay detonators?"

"Over next to the spare 15 millimeter rounds, in the plastic box labelled 'timers'." answered the woman as she loaded some high explosive shells into her shotgun. "I would appreciate if you could make me a couple of your specials if possible, those things have a nice punch to them."

"How can I refuse when you ask so nicely?" replied the spectre as he glanced up from his work and cast a glance around the cargo bay. "Where's Nihlus?" there was a long pause, before Vasir let out a long sigh.

"He didn't take the news about what being on the mission actually means very well." explained the matron uneasily as her usual smug attitude died away.

"Well shit." stated Chen.

 _ **A few minutes earlier:**_

The hold was bustling with activity as the turian slowly went through his firing patterns, attempting to get his body used to the heavy duty armour that'd been gifted to him, the large metal plates were not something that you saw every day, but after his previous escapade on the station the spectre could well appreciate some more specialized protection.

"You better get used to moving in all that crap." declared Tela sharply from where she was watching the man oeuvres from her spot on top of an equipment container "Because when shit hits the fan, and it will, we won't hesitate to leave you behind if you fuck up."

"Nice to know you care Tela." countered the turian "What is it the humans say, 'Warms the cockles of my heart'?" he brought the bulky assault rifle up to practice a quick burst shot at an imaginary target.

"It isn't a joke turian." rumbled the krogan from where he was checking the ammo belt of his massive weapon. "We can't afforded to waste time in an operation, unlike the missions you might be used to, ours tend to have a lot more narrow time window for completion." the giant glanced over at the asari for a long second. "What exactly have you been told about what's going on Kryik?" there was a hushed silence as if the universe had held its breath for a long moment.

"It's some kind of contagion right, something to do with argent energy, its mutating people into flesh eating monsters." the male spectre glanced at his erstwhile colleagues for confirmation. "I picked up that much from my time on Cartagena station." Vasir let out a low hiss.

"That's it, nothing else? Director Shore didn't tell you anything when you were getting your ass chewed out?" she questioned pointedly only to be meet with a shake of the head from the turian at the centre of the conversation.

"Not really, I take it the rest of you know exactly what these things are?"

"Yes and until you can be trusted with the information you're going to have to find out about it on your own." snapped Paramo.

"That being said." stated Vasir quickly as she stepped into deflect a brewing confutation between the duo. "You _do_ understand why you're on this mission right?" Nihlus rolled his eyes at the comment.

"Yes, I know that part; the good director was kind enough to inform me that I'm here because I stuck my nose into things that the powers that be didn't want coming to light." the krogan snorted dismissively at the statement.

"That would be a massive understatement." he retorted "We're all here because we know things that would usually lead to a spectre turning up in the dead of night to kill us, but the Council and the director of CAC decided they could put us to better use." the towering alien jabbed a chunky digit at the others in the room. "If you want to keep it that way, stop asking stupid questions! Stop picking fights with our teammates!" he glared at Vasir "This is near a suicide mission as it gets, if we die no one will give a damn so get your shit together!"

"Well thank you for stating the fucking obvious you're a credit to your fucking species!" snapped Nihlus sharply as he quickly stormed out.

"Well that could have gone better" muttered Tela to herself tiredly.

 _Back in the present:_

"Well shit." muttered Chen as she quickly about-faced and headed deeper into the ship.

"You both realize that in a short few hours we'll be going into a combat operation right?" demanded Bo sharply as he cast a critical eye over the guilty parties. "What were you thinking, if you were thinking at all!"

"He needed to know his situation, he needed to understand." countered Paramo dismissively as he got back to readying his gear. "This mission is too important for bloated egos to get in the way."

"True, but at the same time it probably would have been wise not send a hover truck through group cohesion!" snapped the salarian.

"Keep your skin on, Chen went to talk him down, it'll be fine." replied the asari matron as she too turned back to her allotted task. "And if not we just kill him and blame it on the demons, no skin off our respective hides." her fellow spectre rolled his eyes in clear frustration but decided that there was better things to do then arguing with presumed idiots and got down to building some homemade explosives.

* * *

Chen let out a low curse as she rounded a corner, it was just her luck that the one moment that the woman had been forced to step away from the blue bitch those two morons had somehow managed to royally fuck it up in the brief instance she'd taken her eyes off of them.

"Every fucking time." muttered the operative as she came to a halt outside Nihlus's allotted quarters. "Nihlus!" Chen hammered on the metal plating. "Nihlus I know you're in there, open up!"

"Although normally I have no problem with the opposite sex knocking on my bedroom door, it kinds of help if I'm there to greet them." declared the turian smuggle from of to the side as he came walking down the corridor, a plate of dextro food held in one taloned hand.

"I'm regretting doing this already." grumbled the human to herself as she stepped to the side and the spectre entered the rather spartan quarters "But it's too late now." Chen leaned on the doorframe as she fixed the agent with a calculating glare.

"I take it you want something?" commented Nihlus dismissively as he took a bite of his meal. "Because if I'm being honest I've kind of had enough of the OSI operatives for the time being." the woman snorted.

"Well, tough shit" stated Chen as she let out a tired sigh "I know you're pissed that the others chewed you out but you've got to understand that none of us want to be here." the turian paused mid mouth full and glanced over towards her with growing interest. "Yeah I know, it's a stupid statement 'Who would want to volunteer to something like this?' the simple answer is no one, not me, not Paramo though he'd never admit it, the only one here that would willingly do this crap is DG and if we're being brutally honest, that man isn't all there." that got a reaction as one of the spectre's brow plates raised ever so slightly in silent amusement.

"And here I thought I was the only one that realized that." chuckled Nihlus as he turned around to look at the human fully.

"Trust me you're not" replied Chan firmly "But in my experience, there is _no one_ you want more on your side then the big guy when everything goes to hell." her tone was cold and unyielding. "And this mission will go to hell, no matter what the director says or what the council wants, there is no way that this shits going to be simple." a grim air filled the narrow space.

"Well this is a pleasant conversation." muttered the turian "If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up working for the OSI in the first place anyway? you don't really seem the type"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" snapped the woman sharply, the turians smug smile failed somewhat as he realized the social faux pa "For your sake I'm going to ignore that remark, but next time I'm going to stuff my fist so far up your ass that you'll be throwing up nail clippings, is that clear?"

"Crystal." replied the spectre as he held a hand up in a placating manner.

"Good" the operative let out a long huff before she continued. "What was your question again?"

"How did you join the OSI" Chen let out a dismissive snort.

"Short answer is; by accident." she muttered "Long answer I used to be a marine, nothing special, won my companies boxing championship, that kind of thing, that got me a nice boring recruitment job on some backwater world in the ass end of nowhere." the woman visibly shuddered at the memory. "I remember thinking that I'd give anything for some action, how fucking stupid huh?" the turian wisely remand silent. "Saying nothing is an answer in itself you know?" stated the woman mockingly "Anyway back to the horror story at hand, I was off on a long weekend when some asshole did something really stupid back at the main colony, next thing I know I'm stepping out of a ATV and trying to stop a long time friend of mine from ripping my throat out with his teeth." the spectre grimaced in sympathy.

"Sounds bad."

"More like a total shit storm." corrected the operative coldly "I fought my way back to the local barracks, found most of my comrades either dead or changed, sat around for a bit and then decided to do something about the situation." Nihlus gave an approving nod.

"Not many people would have done something, not if it was anything like the scenes I sure back on Cartagena station." the operative gave a shrug at the comment.

"I can't say, didn't look at the mission report for that operation, was it bad?" the turian flinched ever so slightly at the memory.

"It's was rather tense, Mr Doom mentioned a tear and there was this thing that looked like a heart, it was beating and beating." the sound of the deep rhythmic drumming filled the spectres senses "The beating of drums." a sharp slap snapped the agent out of his slight daze as the operative's open palm connected firmly with the side of his face.

"You cut that shit out right now!" snarled Chen firmly as she fixed the stunned spectre with a hard steer. "Don't make me shoot you"

"Is that a promise?" he was only half joking.

"God help me." muttered the woman as she ran a hand across her face "I'm not getting paid nearly enough for this shit."

* * *

 _Somewhere else on the ship_ :

" **It would seem that Agent Kryik is suffering from mild PTSD.** " declared V.E.G.A's unchanging synthetic tone from over the nearby terminals speakers. " **It would be recommended that that someone reliable be appointed to keep an eye on the agent for any signs of mental corruption** " the heavily built operative glanced up from where he'd been cleaning a section of his armour, the shadows in the room dancing across his face hiding it from view.

"Make a note of it in the ongoing mission report." declared the imposing man as he glanced at the monitor "I thought I told you not to eavesdrop on people when not on assignment?"

" **We are currently on assignment operative, and given your previous reservations about the spectre in question, it was deemed advisable to instigate surveillance on the off chance that the turian proved compromised at a later date.** " Doom Guy let out a low huff, he didn't like it but from a technical standpoint the construct was in the right, and judging from the footage playing out in front of him the operative should take care to not put too much faith in the spectre.

"Continue your observation, but be discrete, if the spectre is compromised we don't want to give the enemy any foreshadowing that we know." the screen flickered in acknowledgment as it went back to sleep mode.

"Sir we've got an incoming priority message from the Citadel on channel one, its Councillor Sparatus." the ships captains slightly worried vice echoed out of the onboard speakers.

"Live link?" Demanded the operative sharply as he jammed his helmet down over his head.

"Yes sir." one of the terminals in the tiny room roared to life as the unmistakable face of the turian representative flickered to life in front of him.

"Councillor," but the usual rhetoric disappeared as the OSI operative caught the look of deep concern painted across the statesman's face. "What is it? What's wrong?" the politician let out a long breath as the pair fixed gazes.

"There's been a complication." and not for the first time Doom Guy felt a long trickle of dread go down his spine.

* * *

 _Several hours earlier:_

Shepard let out a low hiss as she inched her way down a narrow corridor in-between two towering stacks of crates, after she'd found the half eaten C-sec officer an unmistakable feeling of dread had crept into her bones, the damage done to the body and the massive claw marks in the floor and surrounding containers had only brought back that cold sensation from her time on Cartagena station.

"It's okay Jane, just remember you training, you've done this before, you can do it again." muttered the woman as she levelled her weighty looking shotgun up to her shoulder as she peeked around the next corner, only to be meet with the business end of an assault rifle glaring back at her.

"Don't fucking move human." growled the turian behind it, who judging by the navy blue armour was a member of C-sec and a memory of a request fought its way to the front of the commanders mind.

"Garrus Vakarian?" the officer in question started slightly in mild surprise at hearing his name before more than decade and half of military experience took hold.

"How do you know my name?" whispered the individual sharply as his eyes glanced around looking for danger.

"The C-sec captain in charge of the perimeter outside asked me to keep an eye out for you, or what was left of you, something about owing your father his life." the turian let out a low groan as he lowered his weapon slightly.

"That would be Captain Quintis." he sighed "My old man pulled him out a burning squad car and he never forgot it." the now revealed Garrus looked her up and down. "I take it you're not with Citadel Security."

"Nope. Commander Jane Shepard at your service." she almost bowed in a mock greeting but the low growling that echoed out across the cavern like complex quickly. "But I think proper introductions can wait for later." the pair back away from the slowly approaching threats, weapons raised.

"I agree," countered the officer as the sound started to rapidly increase in volume "We should run."

"Definitely!" and they ran as the monstrous shadow painted itself around a corner.

* * *

The following chase was hot and heavy as the two ran for their lives, the snapping creature attempting to close the gap; it nearly succeeded as a lone claw scratched across the back of the commanders armor.

"We can't keep this up for much longer." huffed the turian as they vaulted over a large crate.

"Less talking more running!" shouted the woman loudly as there came the sound of crashing plastic and steel as the monster smashed through the blockage with rage induced fury. "You just had to open your mouth didn't you Vakarian, you just had to open your mouth!"

"Now you're sounding like my father." spluttered the fatigued C-sec officer between breathless gasps as the pair jumped through a narrow doorway a split second before there came the snapping of jaws, the bright red skinned creature desperately attempting to fit in after them with little success.

"That access hatch isn't going to last much longer." stated Shepard as the metal around the edges began to groin under the strain of repeated impacts.

"Then we should really leave." declared the turian pointedly as he began to slowly inch away from the doorway.

"Agreed."

* * *

Fortunately for the pair after a few more minutes of frantic running the sounds of distant anger died away, either they'd gotten lucky and the creature had killed itself or more likely it had gotten bored and wandered off to find something else to eat.

"Okay, for the record I have no spirits clue what the hell that thing is." declared the C-sec officer tiredly as he dropped into an empty chair in what looked like to be an improvised break room judging from a few old tables and other paraphernalia that had been dragged into the small store room.

"I second that." added Shepard as she quickly joined him in sitting down, the last few minutes flashing through her memory and it reminded her rather worryingly of events not so long ago. "But whatever it is, it's bad."

"That's a massive understatement." countered Garrus as he checked his rifle absentmindedly. "Whatever that creature is it has the strength to kill a full C-sec rapid response team without missing a beat and now we're stuck in here with it" the alliance officer grimaced in sympathy at the unhappy situation playing out in front of them.

"If we can get up to the administrator's office on the first floor and jack into the landline we should be able to call in support from the units outside." the comment was meet with a grudging nod from the security expert.

"That might be for the best." Garrus glanced at his omni-tool "I don't think we can take this thing ourselves without an unacceptable level of risk." he shuddered ever so slightly "And I've seen what happens to those who try." there was a poignant silence.

"Sorry for your loss." murmured the woman, there was a long silence as the two of them sat in quiet reflection for a long moment, which was quickly shattered by a bellowing roar that echoed out through the facility.

"I'm really getting sick and tired of that thing." growled the turian irritably "Do you think there's a way to shut him the hell up?" the commander chew the question over as she contemplated their options.

"I think I saw some fuel containers back in the main storage area." she declared "We could try and use them to kill it." the remark drew a pleased sound out of the C-sec officer as he chewed the idea over. "But I still think getting reinforcements should be our primary aim."

"But it would be possible." challenged Garrus almost pleadingly, which didn't go unnoticed by Shepard as she quickly fixed the officer with a stern glare.

"Now is not the time!" she hissed sharply "Look, I don't know what this thing is but if it gets out of this building then a lot of innocent people are going to die, so we need to focus on the primary goal right now." the turian looked conflicted as his military training clashed with his natural instinct to avenge his fallen co-workers, but eventually he let out a long sigh as he slipped back into his professional role.

"Okay, so there is a hard line point in the main office right?"

"That's what the sergeant at the entrance said." muttered the commander as the pair started off again towards where a fire escape was shown on her omni-tool map.

"Was she a hard looking asari, had features like a rock?" Questioned Garrus absently.

"Now that you mention it. . ." the half comment earned her a snorting chuckle from the officer, who recognized the individual being described.

"So you're Alliance then?" he murmured after they slowly made there was down an empty corridor. "Judging from your armor."

"Commander Jane Shepard, Alliance Navy at your services." the woman nodded her head slightly "It's a bit easier to do formal introduction when there isn't a flesh eating monster trying to kill us."

"No kidding" muttered the turian grimly as they rounded a bend. "You hurt or anything? I saw a first aid station on the map on the first floor of this place."

"Should be asking you that question." stated Shepard as she gave him a once over "You've been in here longer than I have." there was a grunt of acknowledgment as the officer picked up on the subtle indications for a situational report from a superior officer, even if it was done out of habit more than anything else.

"I'm still combat effective, no injuries besides a few scratches and scrapes from running away from that thing, my gear is still all here, not that it'll do us that much good." the turian grimaced as something clearly unpleasant flashed across his memory. "I saw that thing tear through a veteran rapid response team, they didn't even seem to slow it down, only make it angry."

"Probably wasn't large enough calibre." muttered Shepard distractedly, almost to herself as they started walking up the emergency fire escape. "I ran into something not too long ago that was like that, which is why I'm packing this baby." she patted the meaty looking shotgun.

"I was going to ask you about that." Garrus replied "Not the normal kind of hardware you see around anymore, the Alliance experimenting with older designs?"

"Not to the best of my knowledge." came the reply as they crowned the top of the stairs only to be met with a sight right out of an H.P Lovecraft novel. Blood drenched the walls, floor, and parts of the ceiling of the hallway.

"Well," muttered Shepard out loud "This is shit."

* * *

 **Apologies for the long wait folks its been rather hectic for both myself and my proofreader, as always a massive shout out to** **Darth Azrael for all their hard work, couldn't do it with out them.**

 ** **Please review if able, it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, it truly does, SO PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.  
****

 ** **Thank you all for reading this I'll see you in the next chapter.****

 ** **Gods-own.****


	9. Chapter 9

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 9

.

* * *

"You know, just once I'd like to go somewhere without everything going to hell." muttered Shepard, stepping over slowly congealing pools of gore as the duo carefully picked their way down the ruined corridor, making extra certain not to disturb any of the multitude of broken bodies that seemingly littered the upper floor of the warehouse. "Just once!"

"The fact that you run into this kind of thing often enough to complain about it isn't reassuring commander." declared the C-Sec officer uneasily as he gingerly maneuverer around a half-mutilated torso that had probably at one time been a fellow turian "I'd go so far as to say that I find it deeply alarming." the remark earned him a dismissive snort from the woman as she peered out from behind a corner to glance down a side passageway.

"You don't even know the half of it," she grumbled "Unfortunately I don't think this is the time for stories." a loud roar from somewhere directly below them cut off the conversation as the sound of crashing could be heard.

"Persistent little shit I'll give it that." snarled Garrus as the two of them quickly increased their pace as the commanders omni-tool guided them towards the hard-line connection to the local extranet terminal.

"It tends to be a recurring theme with the things that I meet." counted Shepard as she caught sight of the access hatch that indicated the warehouse manager's office. "None of which is my fault surprisingly." rather unfortunately for all of those involved as the metal portal in front of them pulled apart it revealed darkened room, with only the few, occasionally crackling sparks from a smashed terminal that lay broken and discarded on the floor to light the way.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." whispered the C-Sec officer uneasily as he aimed slowly brought his weapon up to the ready.

"Famous last words and all but we don't have any other options." the woman took a determined step into the dark gloom, the flash light on her weapon casting a narrow cone of light out from the barrel as she expertly scanned the room.

"Spirits help us." muttered Garrus as he slowly backed in after her, closing the with a whack from his rifle butt. "Door secure."

"Roger that." came the quiet reply as the C-Sec officer glanced over his shoulder just in time to catch a glimpse of something staggering up right from behind the overturned desk, directly behind the commander.

"Contact!" the warning caused Shepard to wheel on the balls of her feet as she brought the shotgun up to bear, but it was a split second too late as the seemingly hostile figure throw itself forward at a stumbling gait as it seemingly attempted to grapple with the alliance officer. "Back up I can't get a clear shot!" he shouted as the two individuals desperately struggled with one another until there came a meaty crack as the woman slammed an elbow into the side of the attacker's face, apparently breaking it's jaw judging from the sounds that emanated out of its mouth.

"I'm trying!" Spat the woman as she gave one last, desperate push before diving to one side as a split second later the air was ripped asunder as the turian opened up with his assault rifle, sending a hail of rounds that shattered the figure's head before jerking its broken body backwards onto the plate work. "Fucking hell watch where your aiming next time!" Shepard pointedly snapped let as she whipped crimson gore from her face.

"I told you to get clear." countered Garrus evenly as the officer gingerly shone his omni-tool light down onto the ruined corpse "I think this was the warehouse manager." he pointed towards a section of bright orange uniform that could just be seen underneath the sea of congealing blood. "Why the hell did he attack you?"

"That's not something we need to worry about right now." stated the commander pointedly as she quickly sidestepped the question. "Our primary goal is to contact the outside and call in the rapid response teams, we can ask investigate once we've dealt with our unwanted friend downstairs." as if to reinforce the point there came a bellowing roar from somewhere below.

"That thing is giving me a migraine."

"I know what you mean." the woman started rummaging through the wreckage of the office "But right now, help me look for the hardpoint." the officer duly obliged and rather quickly the pair had found the landline for the premises.

"Connecting to the link, cover me" ordered Shepard sharply as she pulled a cord out of her belt and slipped it into the waiting socket. **[CONNECTED TO EXTRANET NETWORK]** The characters flashed across the omni-tool display as it rerouted her commlink into the wider communication grid.

"This is Commander Shepard, CAC security clearance code…." She whispered a series of numbers and letters into her mic just loudly enough for the system to detect it as instructed to do by the Director Shore, there was a long pause before there came a soft blast of binary over the link.

"Please hold Commander we are patching you through now." the sudden female tone that echoed out over the channel took Shepard completely by surprise, only to be replaced by one of cold professionalism as the sharp voice of the head of the Council Accountability Committee made itself known.

"Nice to hear you're still with use Commander, I was starting to grow concerned about your wellbeing." declared the disembodied director. "But putting such pleasantry aside I need a status update on the mission."

"Of course, sir." Shepard didn't hesitate in giving a clear and concise briefing of what had been found in the gigantic warehouse and the nightmarish creature that stalked the blood-stained corridors within.

"This is deeply concerning Commander, I had not expected such a dangerous life form to be present when I sent you to investigate, it speaks of your personal skill and training to have been able to weather this unholy test." but then came the pause. "Unfortunately, I'm going to need you to call upon that training once again if you want to complete this mission."

"Sir?" the man's tone sent a shiver down the woman's spine, nothing good could come of this but ever the loyal soldier she listened all the same as her orders were relayed to her

* * *

"I know I'm asking a lot of you and your associate, but it is our best chance to contain this threat." concluded the director grimly as he finally came to an end of his briefing. "Don't worry about the beast; my rapid response teams will kill it, just focus on the mission."

"Understood sir." the line went dead as Shepard let out a long sigh.

"Bad news?" muttered Garrus grimly as he caught the unmistakable look that painted itself across the human's face "Because my credits are on bad news"

"Then congratulations, you win." she replied as the trainee spectre methodically reloaded her shotgun. "That was Director Shore of the CAC by the way, he said that the onsite response teams will handle our ugly friend downstairs, we on the over hand have a different target."

"And that would be?" rather understandably the turian was rather unhappy about not taking part in killing the monster that had just butchered so many of his colleagues, something she could sympathize with but given the new task at hand not a position she could support and Commander made that stance known as she fixed the C-sec officer with a hard glare.

"Look around you officer, we're on the first floor, somewhere the beast can't reach, so tell me why there are bodies lying all over the place?" the statement seemed to snapped Vakarian out of his anger induced frustration as his professional mind turned the question over in his mind until only one really answer remind.

"Because there's a second creature." he whispered as he cast an eye around uneasily at the nearby patches of shadow.

"That's what's the director thinks after hearing my status report." agreed Shepard "He even went so far as to suggest that this second being might have released the first one."

"That would suggest that it's sentient." countered the turian "Which makes it even more dangerous judging from we've seen so far." but even as he said this there came a low rumbling wail that echoed out from somewhere nearby.

"I'm really starting to hate hearing shit like that." commented Shepard tiredly as she readied her primary weapon. "You ready officer?"

"I've come this far." replied Garrus grimly as the pair slowly made their back into the corridor just in time to see the first of the bodies in front of them twitch violently. "No going back now."

"I'll hold you to that Vakarian"

* * *

 ** _Somewhere in deep space:_**

"The engines are getting louder." the remark caused the other members of the investigation team to stop what they were doing as they glanced over towards the salarian spectre. "They've jumped by about fifteen percent output judging from the noise change." the look that was painted across Bo's face clearly indicated that this information wasn't a good thing.

"I thought we were already going max speed?" Chen's tone carried a clear note of concern that didn't go unnoticed.

"I'll check in with the Captain." muttered Vasir coldly as she brought up her omni-tool. "Captain Romulril what's going on? why have you increased your speed?" the voice of the veteran turian echoed out back at her.

"I'm under orders from the chief field operative spectre." came the sharp response "He wants us to get to Eden Prime as fast as possible, so I'm pushing my ship as much as I can within the safety parameters" the assembled listeners all exchanged looks.

"Keep me informed at anymore change Captain."

"I don't like the sound of this." Muttered Paramo grimly as the line died "It is unlike the team leader to take such an action before a mission" his fellow operative nodded.

"Something must have happened," Chen added. "I'll go and talk to him."

"That won't be necessary." Rumbled Doom Guy as he came striding into the cargo bay. "Get ready to deploy, we go as soon as we get into planetary orbit." his tone brokered no argument as the imposing armoured figure stormed past them towards his personal equipment and began strapping spare argent energy cells to his belt.

"Has something changed at the mission location?" questioned the scared krogan as he moved to follow his squad leader. "Are we looking at a full breach?"

"No." the man didn't even bother to look over his shoulder as he replied "The planet for the moment seems secure." there was a slight pause "But there seems to be a situation back on the Citadel." the remark sent a ripple of tension throughout the rest of the ground team.

"These things are on the Citadel?" whispered Nihlus in horror, memories better left forgotten coming roaring back to the fore. "What's being done about it?" there was a hard edge to his voice that hadn't been there before.

"The director is sending Shepard and several OSI rapid response teams to handle it." the operative turned to look at the spectre, cradling an unfamiliar weapon in one hand. "Judging from what I was told it sounds like whatever was planned by this cult was interrupted by C-sec, which lead to the current situation." Vasir let out a low curse as she heard this.

"I'm going to look forward to putting my boot up their leader's ass when we find him, this shit is getting out of hand." she declared

"Agreed." muttered Chan "These guys need to die." there was a chorus of agreement from everyone at the statement. "How long before we reach the planet?"

"Four hours given our current speed." rumbled Doom as he finished checking over the Hellshot SR1 "Make sure that everything is done and stored away half an hour before we enter the system, judging from the activity on the station expect heavy opposition planet side."

"And what can we expect exactly?" questioned Nihlus as during this whole debate his features hadn't softened in the slightest, in fact they'd only gotten harder as the conversation dragged on. "Because so far you've all been extremely vague on the exact nature of what we're expected to face on this mission" the other members of the squad exchanged looks before glancing back towards the lead operative.

"Sir?" Paramo's tone was unmistakable, but a single stare from the armoured figure cut the towering krogan short.

"Vasir." the asari turned her full attention towards the imposing individual "What have you told him?" there was a long pause before she answered.

"Not much, judging from how he was acting I guessed that Director Shore hadn't seen fit to fully brief my fellow spectre on the nature of the forces arrayed against us." the matron shrugged dismissively at the hard look that the turian shot her way. "Didn't think it was my place to correct that."

"So I see." rumbled the armoured operative grimly. "Spectre" Nihlus tensed as he felt the operatives chilling gaze fall upon him. "Do you really want to know what we're up against?" the whole hold went silent as the agent felt the seeming weight of the coming conversation bearing down upon him as the assembled onlookers as one glanced towards him.

"I do." he answered.

"Then know and be damned like the rest of us." declared Doom Guy as the explanation began.

* * *

 ** _Somewhere inside the Citadel Tower_** :

"We want a status update Shore, what is happening in the warehouse district?" demanded councilor Tevos as she stopped her pacing just long enough to glare towards the head of the CAC.

"Of course, councilor." replied the gray haired man as he looked away from a datapad to the gathered members of the citadel council. "As we speak, OSI fireteams are currently purging the installation of the threat. I have word from Commander Shepard, she has confronted the beast and from her description I believe I know the creature in question." the silence was deafening.

"I take it that it was as you feared director." commented Valern as he stopped typing on his onmi-tool. "What exactly is this monster?"

"They have no name, not even in the realm from which they hail." Shore brought up a slowly spinning hologram as he continued speaking. "Specialists call them Pinkie demons due to their skin tone." the three bureaucrats shuddered as the images let out a roar before it started rushing towards something off screen. "Their general modus operandi is to stalk their targets through scent and pheromone detection." a cross section of the beast skull flashed up onto the screen. "Once they find their prey they'll charge it and using a combination of brute force and razor-sharp tusks to rip their foes apart."

"Well this is nice and all." Declared Sparatus as he shifted uneasily in his seat "But I fail to see why we're discussing this, outside of the obvious reasons." his salarian colleague let out a tired sigh.

"What I believe that the director is trying to say is that the monster is a mindless beast." the bureaucrat added as his eyes seemed to sharpen as a thought occurred to him. "Which raises the question, how exactly did it managed to get onto the station?" there was a long pause.

"A good question." muttered Tevos "It hurts me to say this, but I suspect that this cult, which we now face, has somehow managed to seed agents onto the citadel without our knowledge." the asari's eyes turned hard as she fixed the other two councilors with a level stare.

"I'll have the spectres root out any suspicious religious groups on the station." said the turian representative "Valern, maybe you can work with the Director Shore and task C-sec with cracking down on anti-social activities, hopefully that'll deter any future plans this group may have."

"That would be a good idea." commented the salarian "I'm sure the director could also provide some of his CAC assets to help in the search." the man in question titled his head in agreement.

"Of course, councilor, but before we get too ahead of ourselves, may I suggest that we see how the events in the warehouse district play out?" there where murmurers of acknowledgment as the politicians quickly excused themselves from the room to finalize what was quickly shaping up to be a counter terrorism task force.

"Sir." his personal assistant, Miss Reelun, came trotting up towards him as the security detail station around the council chambers parted to let her through.

"Miss Reelun, I take it we've got results from the argent readings leaking out from the facility?" the duo quickly made a beeline towards a privet elevator that took them down into the heart of the station.

"Our experts have compared the data feeds and we're pretty sure that we know what creature was originally summoned by the cultists." declared the quarian as she handed her superior a datapad which he quickly glanced over, his complexion shifting as his eyes scanned the screen.

"God help her," he whispered as the color drained from his face "She's going to need it."

* * *

 ** _Meanwhile somewhere nearby:_**

"Why. Won't. You. Fucking. Die!" roared Shepard as she slammed an armored fist into the face of what was once a dock workers face, smashing the things jaw and coating the surrounding plate work in a dark crimson, the monsters' blood gushing out of its ruined features.

"Nine o'clock!" there was a burst of gunfire as rounds smashed into a second abomination, cracking its head like an egg. "I'm really getting sick of these things!" the Commander silently agreed as she unloaded her shotgun into the attacker's chest, painting the wall behind it red.

"Watch your right!" the turian ducked to one side as Shepard brought her weapon to bare, the impact sent the headless torso tumbling down the nearby stairs.

"Clear!"

"Clear." the pair let out long sighs as they cast disbelieving eyes over the carnage that had erupted out of nowhere.

"Okay, this is really starting to get out of hand." muttered Garrus as he tore his gaze away from the bloody remains to look pointedly at the human next to him. "What the fuck is going on!" the woman raised an eyebrow.

"How the hell should I know!?" she snapped, but the C-sec officer clearly remained sceptical as he let out a frustrated snort before turning away.

"I heard something moving from down this way." came the declared as the figure jerked a taloned hand down a side corridor "Let's go and check it out." the woman nodded as she silently cursed her own inability to lie as the pair moved of down the gloom covered passageway, the metal clang of their boots hitting the deck the only sound around them.

"The rapid response teams should be attacking soon." the statement was met with an approving growl from Vakarian.

"Good, the sooner we take care of whatever is up here the sooner we can help deal with the thing downstairs." The commander frowned at the declaration, she was starting to get the feeling that the C-sec officer was becoming rather blinded by his thirst for revenge. But a sudden low, guttural scream that came washing past the pair quickly put a stop to such thoughts.

"Oh come on." sighed Garrus sadly as he leveled his assault rifle in the direction of the noise "This is what I get for opening my big mouth."

"Yeah you jinxed us all right." added Shepard as the two of them slowly inched their way towards what looked like another office judging from the door.

"Is it just me or does it feel hotter all of a sudden" the officer wasn't wrong the commander's temperature gauge on her omni-tool had jumped fifteen degrees in the few dozen meters that they'd traveled, a fact that sent an all too familiar feeling down the woman's spine.

"Get behind me." Vakarian glanced over his shoulder pad in mild confusion as he caught the tail end of the instruction.

"What?" the temperature jumped another ten degrees.

"Right now!" her tone bridged no argument and it's proved to be the only thing that saved the C-sec officer life as the door not too far away seemed to warp as if under an intense heat before exploded outwards into the corridor in a swirling fireball, narrowly missing the turians head by a few feet as years of military training kicked in as the officer ducked; later on he would comment that it gave him the perfect view to see the imposing humanoid, its hands and feet wreathed in flames come striding confidently into the narrow space.

"Ah fuck me." he whispered.

* * *

 ** _Edge of the Utopia system:_**

"We are in system, eta to surface forty minuets." the captains voice echoed over the speakers.

"Final equipment checks, be ready to go before we hit atmo." the rest of the ground team let out distracted grunts of confirmation as the chief operatives unyielding tone let his will be known to the cargo hold in general.

"Doesn't look like Agent Kryik taking his new-found information to well" Commented Chan quietly as she everyone so often glanced at the spectre in question out of the corner of her vision.

"Can you blame him?" came the distracted response from Bo as he pulled out his packed equipment and began recounting everything once again. "Being told that we're going off to fight demons and creatures from the bowels of hell, it's rather overwhelming." the salarian let out a tired sigh "It was for me at least." the woman gave her teammate a sympathetic grimace before returning to her allotted task.

* * *

Nihlus let out a frustrated hiss as he, for the second time in as many minuets, slammed the ammunition magazine back into his assault rifle, his highly trained body running on autopilot as his mind attempted to come to terms with dark reality of the universe that he'd lived in his whole life.

"It's a shock isn't it?" stated an all too familiar voice from directly behind him.

"I'm not in the mood Vasir, go pester someone else." snapped the turian as he placed the cleaning cloth to one side and he turned to glare at his colleague.

"Nah and you want to know why?" the male spectre let out a low hiss as he pulled himself up to his full height.

"Because you're a bitch?" if the asari matron felt threatened by his posturing then she didn't show it as she pulled out a cigarette out from some hiding place and lit it.

"Funny and true, but no. It's because we haven't got time for it." she locked eyes with the fellow agent "Look, if we were back on the Citadel you'd be able to be as moody as you want but right now you can't so smoke a joint or go to the bathroom, just get it out of your system because it's all our asses on the line if anyone of us slip up."

"You've got some nerve-" but before the conversation could devolve into an argument the captain made an announcement over the ship wide intercom.

"Operative Doom, we're getting Ardent readings across the spectrum, the whole of Eden Prime is awash in high levels of radiation!" any and all conversations that may have been happening died as a tense atmosphere flooded the ship.

"Find the epicentre of the event and take us in Captain." declared Doom Guy forcefully as he quickly reattached his amassed gear onto his person. "Everyone get ready for-" but once again the line crackled into life again before he could finish.

"I'm getting a transmission from the planet's surface! patching the audio through now." the sounds of battle filled the empty space setting everyone on edge as some unfortunate soul's voice began shouting over the din.

"We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties…"

* * *

[CITADEL COUNCIL CENTRAL ARCHIVES: ACCESS GRANTED]

.

[DATA REQUEST RECEIVED: SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED]

.

[SECURITY CLEARANCE RECEIVED]

.

[DATA REQUEST INITIATED]

.

[ARCHIVE SEARCH RESULTS]

.

[Transcript of Audio Recording of Witness Interview and Character Evaluation: Part 1]

[Date Stamp: 05/04/2178CE]

[Subject: Corporal Lorelei Chen, System Alliance 5th Marine Division]

[Interviewer: Office of Special Investigations Operations Officer Sillia Bellidos]

.

.

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[Operations Officer Bellidos]: Please state your name for the record. [sound of a metal chair being push back as subjects sits down]

[Corporal Lorelei Chen]: Corporal Lorelei Chen, System Alliance 5th Marine Division.

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: Please understand that this is an official council investigation Corporal Chen, any omissions will be considered a lie under oath and will be dealt with as such.

[Corporal Lorelei Chen]: Do I get to speak to the human ambassador? It's within my rights as a council citizen to have a legal representative during a police interview. [sounds of a low chuckle from the female turian]

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: Corporal as far as the Alliance knows Lorelei Chen died back on Zaetera Prime with the rest of the outpost's garrison. [long silence only broken with finger tapping from the subject]

[Corporal Lorelei Chen]: What the fuck do you people want?

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: We want to know what happened down there in your own words corporal, the first Operative on the scene gave a rather positive review of your handy work and trust me that human does not hand out empty praise to anyone. [long sigh from the subject]

[Corporal Lorelei Chen]: Fine, where do you want me to start?

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: From the beginning please.

* * *

 **Apologies for such a wait folks its been rather hectic as a result it's slowed down my writing, as always a massive shout out to** **Darth Azrael for all their hard work, couldn't do it with out them.**

 ** **Please review if able**** ** ** ** **READ AND REVIEW**** , it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, it truly does, SO PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.  
****

 ** **Thank you all for reading this I'll see you in the next chapter.****

 ** **Gods-own.****


	10. Chapter 10

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 10

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* * *

 ** _HOURS EARLIER ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF CONSTANT: EDEN PRIME_**

"Good morning Eden Prime! This is the Galactic Forces Network and I'm Penn Ransone bringing you the best, the brightest, and loudest in the galactic music scene, our next song is dedicated to those marines slogging it out in paradise, keep up the hard work you guys and gals of the 2nd Frontier Division!" the heavy hitting beat thundered out of the mako's speakers as the APC trundled down a dusty road, earning a course of groans from most of the vehicles occupants.

"Come on Lt can we at least listing to tunes from this century." grumbled one of the soldiers from somewhere in the back, which only earned him a snort from the veteran officer who was driving stick.

"This is your heritage Corporal Fenning, this is what you're fighting to defend!" shouted the middle aged African American sharply.

"If the alien hoards want to destroy this particular part of my history then I'll gladly hold the door for them at the museum sir." retorted the marine to the bellowing laughter of the rest of the squad.

"That sounds like defeatist talk to me Corporal. Gunny, remind the members of the platoon what happens to those that talk defeatist in front of me!" the none commissioned officer next to him grinned evilly as she turned to allow the lower ranks to see the shit eating smile that had painted itself across her face.

"Yes Sir! Any member of second platoon found being defeatist will be volunteered for advanced CQC training with Gunnery Sergeant Williams until the Lieutenant is satisfied." the remark earned pained twitches from several members of the squad who had run afoul of this rule.

The mako shuddered slightly as it rolled over yet another massive pothole, this far from the main habitation areas of the colony the roads were no better the barely visible tracks, not that it really posed a problem for the APC, but it was certainly murder on the buttocks of the crew.

"How long is this going to take Lieutenant, I've got a hot date back at the barracks at eight." shouted Corporal Woodrow from somewhere in the sea of marines behind the operator's seat. "And I want to get cleaned up first."

"The only way you'd have a hot date Wood's is if you stole that vacuum cleaner from under Malcolm's bed! so until I say otherwise think of this as your hot date." the entered interior of the vehicle erupted into gut wrenching laughter as the marine in question went red in the face.

"We're fifteen minutes out from our ETA Lt." declared Ashley as she tore her gaze way from the readout screen, the Lieutenant nodded grimly in acknowledgment.

"Look alive you apes', I want us ready to go in ten!" there was a roar of confirmations as the soldiers began a final round of equipment checks. "Gunny, take the turret the captain said that this was just a basic perimeter sweep but I'm not taking any chances, better safe than sorry in my book."

The battalion command had been on edge the last few days, no one was saying anything but the powers that be had made it sharply clear that the local defence forces should tighten up security for the foreseeable future around the capital and surrounding areas, so here they were out in the sticks in the middle of a damned heatwave.

"Hey my cousin Zack said that big expansion project over on the western district got delayed for some reason." mentioned another marine from somewhere in the back. "Said the construction crew found something and the administration brought in the egg heads to have a look at it."

"No shit, think they found some alien ruins or something?" inquired Fenning, his love of all things xeno coming to the surface. "I wonder if they'll get us to guard the site, that would be awesome!" the remark earned the younger man a dismissive snort from their grizzled lieutenant.

"Sure corporal and when those long lost aliens want to stuff their melon sized eggs up someone's ass I volunteer you right away" Lieutenant Malcolm was old school, not xenophobic per say, but he'd served through the first contact war so he had a hearty dose of realism when it came to anything xeno, a fact that deeply endeared him to the gunnery chief, her grandfather's legacy still carried weight in many quarters of the armed forces and she'd expected to get a similar treatment on arriving on Eden Prime, what she got instead was the Lt, and he did not take shit from anyone under his command.

* * *

 ** _Several months earlier:_**

"Some of you seem to think that that the Gunny's grandfather is the biggest bastard in the galaxy!" the Lieutenant came stomping past the assembled platoon, who were standing at parade ready in the middle of the pouring rain

"I am here to tell you all that you are _wrong_!?" a vein could be seen throbbing on the side of his head, he hadn't liked being disturbed from his own time to break up a scuffle that had broken out between herself and some of the other marines.

"I am the biggest, nastiest mother fucker that you'll ever meet under god's green earth and by the time I finished with you all your butts will be begging me for burn cream for the fire that I'm about to unleash on all you shit heads, now drop and give me four hundred!?" and the veteran had been true to his word, by the time that the Lt had finished with them the whole platoon was united in their collective hatred for the man and his team building exercises.

* * *

 ** _Back in the present:_**

She'd found out later that Lieutenant Malcolm had been part of the liberating forces that had retaken Shanxi towards the end of the war and had nothing but respect for the men and women that had stayed to fight on the doomed planet, not that it did her any favours as the Lt had pointed during one of his infamous team building exercises, which in this case had been running up a mountain in nothing but a pair of boots.

Ashley shuddered at the memory, it had been difficult to look at one another for weeks after that, there had been far too much jiggling of various body parts for that.

"Lieutenant Malcolm, come in Lieutenant Malcolm this is control, over." Captain Takahashi's unwavering tones came echoing out from the vehicles onboard speakers as the Mako cleared a low rise to get a better vantage point.

"This is Lieutenant Malcolm, I read you control. Over." the line crackled ever so slightly, as if there was static on the line, something that should have been impossible given their relative proximity to the communication hub.

"We're getting weird energy fluctuations across the board, admin thinks someone is deliberately fucking around with the power grid, stay alert, it's probably nothing but you can never to be to safe, will contact you if the situation changes, acknowledge. Over.".

"Acknowledged Command, will stay on our patrol route, contact us if you need anything, over and out." the atmosphere inside the mako became tense, the friendly, warm team feeling vanishing as the years of training took hold.

If someone was messing with the main power grid, it was a bad sign, by anyone's standards. If the power went out then not only would the colony go blind but the local naval defence fleet in the cluster wouldn't pick up their automated distress beacon in time to defend the planet from any potential enemy force approaching the system, so rather understandable the marines were on edge.

"I got a bad feeling about this sarge, someone is fucking with the grid just after some egg head finds some alien ruins? Can't be a coincidence." the statement earned her a dismissive snort from the older man.

"Well damn gunny you earn a cookie, just like every other person with half a fucking brain." the sharpness of his tone made it clear the Lieutenant had shifted into his business mode as his subordinates liked to call it, all professional no frills but if it kept them alive the platoon wasn't complaining. "Get in contact with second and third squads, let them know what's going down, I don't want anyone walking into this with their ass hanging out."

"Roger Lt" the other squad leaders quickly picked up the call and rather predictably were not happy either and made their opinions know rather loudly and it took Lieutenant Malcolm bellowing into the comm-link to shut them up.

A few minutes later the APC crested a low rise, allowing its occupants to gaze over the low rambling hills and luscious woodland that made up this quadrant of the colony and just on the horizon, silhouetted on a small hill was the aforementioned dig site, groups of what could presumed to be scientists darting around like so many tiny ants.

"We're going to do our sweep as planned then double back and check on the excavation." declared the Lt as he gunned the engine forward. "If we're going to have shit on our doorstep might as well know what kind of shit it is."

"Won't hear any complaints from me sir." muttered Williams as she checked the long rang scanners for the seconded time.

* * *

The next hour or so passed in a blur as the mako trundled along its designated patrol path, making sure that nothing untoward was happening on the city limits. Even on a developed planet such as Eden Prime smuggling and other such illegal activity was not uncommon, a fact that the Alliance brass did not like in the slightest, so here they were, trained soldiers acting as glorified police force for the colonists.

"Sectors A-17 through A-25 is clear, no unusual power signatures or life signs on the scanners" Ashley's bored tone was rather unmistakable to everyone. "Moving onto the next sector of the route."

"Remind me why we can't get out and do this on foot?" questioned Fenning irritably from his seat. "That's what we normally do!" the remark earned him a withering glare from the Lt.

"Because, corporal, if shit does happen I don't want my squad spread across the fucking landscape, now stop your bellyaching!" snarled the officer as he turned his gaze back to the horizon.

Soon enough the rest of their patrol came to an uneventful conclusion and first squad found itself thundering towards the dig site, an almost oppressive atmosphere accompanying them.

"Second Platoon this is perimeter control, what can we do for you Lieutenant Malcolm?" a familiar voice echoed out of the speakers towards them as they drew nearer to the excavation.

"That you Jones? They got first platoon out here babysitting?" there was a soft chuckle from the other side.

"Looks like it Ben, but I still got to ask what you're doing here man, orders you understand." there was a short pause before the Lieutenant responded.

"Just got done doing our patrol and were in the area, wanted to see if you lads and ladies were doing all right, command is on edge." there was an understanding huff over the line.

"Yeah we got that message to." there was a noticeable pause as the other man seemingly thought something over in his mind before responding. "Look Ben, I'm not supposed to allow anyone not approved past the perimeter, orders from the top, but I wouldn't mind having some more eyes on the ground." there was an uneasy silence in the cabin at the request.

"What do you want us to do Ben?" this was going against regulations but good platoon leaders looked out for each other.

The slightly younger Lieutenant's voice took on a relieved tone as the sound of drilling could be heard somewhere in the distance, the yells of archaeologist and other excavators echoing out over the open commlink at the same time.

"I could use someone physically patrolling the perimeter. I got one of my teams on it already but judging from the noise coming from the bigwig right behind me I'll have to pull the rest of the platoon off the line to keep a closer eye on things here, think you can watch our backs?"

A grim look crossed the Lt's features. "Will do, getting into position now, Malcolm out." the line went dead as the Lieutenant gunned the engine and pushed the mako forward. "Look alive people, Fenning, Johnson you two will man the APC, the rest of you with me on foot!" there was a chorus of confirmations from the rest of first squad as they readied themselves.

* * *

"Fuck, never thought that all this wilderness would give me the creeps." muttered Wood's uneasily as the patrol stalked along the edge of the security zone, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

"Keep it together marine, I'm not going to die here today because you were scared of the creepy forest." the marine flinched at the sharp words being sent his way.

"Sorry sir, shutting up sir." Williams sent her superior a worried look, the Lieutenant was on edge and that was not normal in the slightest, and the squad could feel that too if the tension shared between them all was any indicator.

The minutes slowly ticked by as the marines picked their way through the landscape, stopping every so often to check back in with both the mako that was shadowing them from a distance, and first platoon, who apparently had their hands full keeping the scientists at the dig site in line; the silence didn't last however as just as the group had stop for a quick brake there came a thundering boom that echoed throughout the immediate area, quickly followed by some kind of energy shockwave that sent everyone flying.

"Squad, sound off and give me a status update!" Roared the Lieutenant as he staggered back to his feet, weapon up and at the ready as he scanned the surrounding treeline, there came a smattering of confirmations over the comms. "Gunny, we good?" Williams shook her head to clear out the low ringing that had come to dominate her ear canals.

"I'm green, what the fuck was that sir?"

"Don't know, but whatever it was it's bad news for the colony, SO EVERYONE LISTEN UP!" the last part was delivered with a thunderous bellow "We're regrouping with first company, everyone double time!" there was not protests from the rest of the squad as they hoofed it back to the mako that was parked lower down the hill.

"Lt I'm getting some real weird shit over the commlinks, don't know if it's static or jamming but it's freaking me the hell out." Fenning voice was notably uneasy that put everyone on edge, there was an undercurrent of uncertainty there that couldn't be missed.

"Hold on corporal we're almost there" shouted the Lieutenant as they crested over the last low ridge that separated them from the APC, just in time to see a barrage of missiles slam into the side of the carrier, ripping through the heavy armour and detonating its dark matter reactor in a cobalt explosion that sent shrapnel flying everywhere.

"Shiiiit!" Wood's terrified cry went up as the remaining marines dived for cover behind whatever was close at hand. "What the fuck!?"

"Stow it marine! Does anyone have eyes on the shooters!?" snarled the older veteran as he peeked out from behind a rocky outcrop. "Gunny, you good?" Ashley winced at the question as she glanced down at her arm where a jagged cut could already be seen bleeding freely.

"I got pinged by some shrapnel, it's nothing. Fernández is already putting gel on it." the woman held the injured limb out to the silent medic as the conversation continued. "Anyone else get hit?"

"Not from the sounds of it." countered the older man, "But we can't stay here." the Lieutenant caught his subordinates attentions with a wave of his hand. "Frankin and Tanaka with me, we're going to lay down covering fire, the rest of you fall back to the dig site." but before they could execute their orders there was the screeching roar of a pair of jet engines as something came crashing down into the burning hulk, smothering the burning wreckage.

"Fall back, everyone fall back!" snarled the Lt as he opened up on the shrouded outline that could just be seen through dust cloud, then whatever it was shrieked, chilling everyone's blood, no natural thing should be able to make that noise and you know what they were right.

* * *

 ** _A few hours later in the planet's atmosphere_** :

"Ardent readings are off the charts, with a massive spike right above the colonies main reactor, I think it's starting fail." shouted the captain over the ships intercom. "I'm going to have to set you all down on the city limits, my systems can't handle that amount of ambient radiation."

"Get us as close in as you can, then fall back to wait for my signal." rumbled Doom as he magnetically attached himself to the decking underfoot, the other members of the fire team doing the same, time was an issue here, no messing around with seatbelts or harnesses, the sooner they were planet side the better.

"This is not some small-scale shit show." declared Vasir coldly as they watched footage from the ships external cameras, columns of black smoke rising into the air all around them. "This is a full-on breach." the assembled specialist nodded grimly as the craft swooped in low.

"It doesn't matter, you know the stakes, no screw ups." rumbled the chief operative as he readied his weapon. "Get ready." there was a whine of servos as the cargo bay doors pulled apart to reveal a burning, smoked filled scene, a few badly eaten bodies dotting the ground directly in front of them.

Paramo was the first to leave, stepping out onto the charred earth, slowly sweeping the local area. "All clear!" he stated, the Doom Marine stomping past him as the rest of the strike force hurried to keep pace.

Nihlus glanced around carefully, there were a few of the possessed as the rest of the veterans called them lying on the ground but a few swift stabs from a combat knife or boot stomp quickly silenced them. "There aren't that many non-humans so far." he commented as he pulled a blade out from what had once been a dockworkers right eye socket with a sickening squelching sound.

"Not that surprising." countered Bo as he popped a possessed in the head with a silenced pistol without so much as a flinch. "Eden Prime is one of the most developed Alliance colonies outside of the home system, human to non-human ratios will be noticeably skewed." there a meaty thud as Vasir stomped yet another corpse as the group slowly made its way across what looked like an industrial complex towards the populated centres of the planets capital.

"We're making good progress" muttered Chen as she dispatched yet another straggler, there was a dismissive huff from the asari spectre, who was just standing behind her keep watch.

"And how long is that going to last, this is just the leftovers from the initial Lazarus Wave, the moment we hit a densely inhabited area shits going to hit the fan. Well, more than it already has." and as always as if to prove the matron right there was a sudden deafening screech from nearby as a nearby shelter door burst open, unleashing it's mutated and mutilated occupants onto the street. "So much for the silent approach." declared the asari as she court site of Doom Guy accelerating towards the hoard. "Might as well go loud." as the rest of the group brought their weapons up to bear and as one the air around them ignited as they let fly.

* * *

"I'm picking up argent readings from multiple vectors, threat levels are increasing rapidly, I would suggest moving quickly to close the breach before it stabilizes into a viable Hell Portal" V.E.G.A warned. "It is likely that enemy forces will be attempting to fully destabilize the main reactor, so your primary goal should be to prevent this; failure will lead to a more complex undertaking for satisfactory resolution." the operative let out a distracted snort of confirmation as he nonchalantly slammed a fist into the nearest possessed, shattering its head and covering his arm in dark gore as the armored juggernaut pulled out his side arm.

"We need to move, break through!" the order was carried out without issue as the rest of the squad broke through the gap that the operative had carved into the shambling swarm. "Paramo, Kryik you've got the rear, the rest of you keep your head on a swivel, they know we're here now." the next few minutes went by in a daze as the fire team cut a bloody path deeper into the settlement.

* * *

Nihlus let out a low hiss as his heavy-duty assault rifle kicked against his shoulder, large calibre rounds thundering into the slowly encroaching hoard that was rapidly amassing behind them as he and his partner advanced.

"Watch your right side!" roared the krogan over the deafening thunder of his chain gun as he brought it around in a steady arc, cutting the monsters down like so much chopped wheat before him. "If you get pushed back we'll have to give ground to early!"

And that would be a bad thing, judging from the sounds of battle that were echoing out from behind them their vanguard had seemly run into slightly more determined opposition. The assessment proved accurate as moments later when a trio of explosions went off.

"Looks like they've started getting wise." Paramo's statement was quickly accompanied by a hail of mass effect rounds as a far more organized group of possessed came storming around a corner towards them, weapons held tightly in their deformed hands.

"By the spirits." the turian couldn't help but grimace as he saw the mangled body armour that clung to monsters ruined bodies, at least they now knew what happened to the local garrison, but whatever sympathy he might have had vanished as shot glanced of his helmet. "Fucking die!" it was going to be a long day.

* * *

 ** _Somewhere not so far away_** :

"Master, we are detecting intruders on the city limits." a decrepit looking figure, dressed in filthy robes muttered nervously as he shuffled towards the figure that was outlined against the glowing form of the main argent reactor. "The newly converted have been sent to destroy them." the remark earned him a dismissive snort from the apparent leader, who didn't even bother to glance in the wretches' direction as he fired off a cutting response.

"And that is why, Alexander, our Overlords saw fit to appoint me as their herald, your ignorance is telling, your soldiers are already dead. These so call intruders are more than likely the OSI, which means….." the figure left the sentence hanging.

"That the Doomslayer." finished the cultist in growing fury. "What shall we do master?" the individual turned to reveal his turian features to the lesser being.

"I think it's time to move to the next phase of the plan." he chuckled as he waved a hand towards the giant ritual circle, freshly painted in human blood, that had been placed around the reactor core. "It's time for us welcome our masters home."

* * *

 **Apologies for such a wait real life has been kicking down my door a lot lately...but besides that, as always a massive shout out to** **Darth Azrael for all their hard work, couldn't do it with out them.**

 ** **Please review if able**** ** ** ** **READ AND REVIEW**** , it takes a lot of energy and time to write my stories, so I politely ask that if you are able please leave a comment at the bottom, it really means so much to me when I get reviews, it truly does, SO PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.  
****

 ** **Thank you all for reading this I'll see you in the next chapter.****

 ** **Gods-own.****


	11. Chapter 11

This Doom of Ours

Chapter: 11

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* * *

 _ **Somewhere in Constant: Capital of Eden Prime**_

"They're pushing!" bellowed Nihlus over the sound of gunfire as he ducked back behind cover a split-second before rounds bit into the rubble like so many angry hornets, chipping off pieces of concrete and forcing the agent to curse loudly; something that his current partner found mildly amusing as he stepped out behind a smoldering car to lay down a withering barrage that cut off the impromptu attack in a wave of stinking crimson that stained the ground red.

"What did you think they would do, just let us walk right on in?" snorted the OSI Agent sharply as the turian came jogging on by him as the pair fell back there down the street. "Just keep up the concentrated fire and we'll be fine" shots started ringing out around them as the next wave of the corrupted local defense garrison came storming into view.

"More incoming," stated the spectre "Get to cover!" the duo split, each one going to opposite sides of the street as they began picking off the leading figures that made up the pursuing force.

" **Agent Paramo.** " the synthetic tone that echoed out of the krogan's earpiece got the individuals full attention as he continued painting the surrounding landscape with the rotten blood of their inhuman enemies. " **You both are to fall back 0.8 miles to the new reference point on your HUD.** " there was a slight pause " **I suggest you make haste, the gap in the encirclement will not last long at the current rate** "

"Understood." he quickly rumbled glancing over towards the nearby spectre "Nihlus, we need to keep moving, the rest of the team broke through!" the turian gave the equivalent of the thumbs up as he started sprinting off down the street.

* * *

" **The rear-guard are falling back, ETA three minuets.** " declared V.E.G.A into the chief operatives comm-link in that unemotional tone that it always used. " **I would suggest you close the rift as soon as possible.** "

"I'm working on it." muttered the imposing human as he ripped the jaw clean off a monster in a shower of gore. "We're leaving in 3, hold until then!" he added out loud as the rest of the response team let out shouts of confirmations before buckling down to kill as many of the shambling monstrosity's as possible.

And that worked well right up until there came a deafening bellow that echoed out from down a narrow side street and a lumbering form came hurtling out of the smoke; a ton of muscle and hatred that got the waiting opponents scattering in all directions as the Hell Knight joined the fray.

"Focus on the lesser threats, I'll take the knight!" roared the imposing human as he unloaded a blast of ardent energy into the side of the hellish warrior, sending it crashing into a waiting store front. If that generated any hope from the rest of the team it quickly evaporated as a weighty looking counter, cash register still bolted to it, came cartwheeling out a split second later, smashing Doom Guy from his feet and sending him crashing into the hard ground as the knight came storming back into the battle.

"DG's down!" Bellowed Chan as she fired her shotgun into the creatures exposed back, ripping whole pounds of flesh from it's body, which only seemed to make the monster more angry as it attempted to swat aside the growing annoyances around it, the towering attacker attempting to deal with what its sure as its primary target, the Doomslayer, all it got was a slab of metal to the face as reward as the imposing human lashed out with a reinforced kick that cracked it jaw and sent blood cascading onto the broken floor as the monsters staggered backwards, it was the last thing it ever did.

"HE rounds out." declared agent Bo evenly as his heavily customized grenade launcher barked loudly, you could almost see the smoke trail as the projectile arched across the open space and connected with the hellspawns massive chest with a meaty thud before detonating with a deafening boom, coating all of those nearby in blood and entrails. "Threat is down." concluded the salarian as he holstered the weapon.

"Warn me next time asshole!" snarled his asari co-worker as she shook her head to get the ringing out of her ears "Goddess damn that hurt." her fellow spectre simple shrugged before pulling out a pistol from his belt and blasting a possessed in the face.

"Status Report V.E.G.A" there was a slight pause as the A.I did a recalculation of the situation at hand.

" **Estimated time until portal stabilization is decreasing, recommend rapid completion of the mission before the situation degrades further.** " the chief operative grumbled something under his breath before picking back up his energy weapon.

"Plot us a new route to the core." instructed the man as he caught site of the two wayward members of his team coming sprinting up the road towards them "We're leaving." the rest of his group nodded in acknowledgment as they regrouped with the stragglers.

Paramo wiped some blood from his face as he exchanged looks with his fellow OSI operatives. "They more organized than normal." the krogan muttered "I could have sworn that something was controlling them."

" **Likelihood of cultist activity on sight is high, potential risk of coordinated action likely to be high as a result.** " declared the synthetic tone over the team channel evenly " **Expect more coordinated attacks as you come closer to the source of the breach.** "

The communication between the teammates quickly stopped as there was a burst of deafening static over the line and a low bellowing sound echoed out over the entire city, quickly followed by a pulsing shock wave that shattered windows and sent the specialists staggering wildly as they attempted to keep there footing, with a varying degree of success.

But that was the last of the response team's concerns as the air was filled with an unnatural wind that swirled around the feet of all those present and everyones attention focused on a small but slowly increasing storm cloud that seemed to be forming over the main ardent power station at the heart of the colony.

"We need to move!" bellowed Doom Guy as he grabbed hold of one of his colleagues by the shoulder and pushed them down. "Get moving!" they started sprinting which broke out into a full on run as the sound of stampeding feet could be heard from all around them as the corrupt and the possessed came crawling out from every nook and cranny as if on command.

"There's thousands of them!" yelled Nihlus as he throw himself over a ruined car, the sprites of creation guiding his steps as the hoards of hell came home to roost.

"Just shut the fuck up and run!" countered Vasir loudly as she blasted an imp off its feet with a shot from her shotgun, it didn't help as three more took its place, heralding themselves in a hail of fireballs. "Will you all just fucking die!?" she quickly added right before unloading on them with a good half of her remaining clip.

As the sounds of battle rang out all around them there where the unmistakable sound of detonations as the lower level power relays and substations overloaded; an unimaginable energy surge poured through the system; this had the unwanted side effect of blowing out every light, screen and display within the city limits.

The Krogan veteran snarled under his breath as a shop front exploded next to him, sending glass and metal shrapnel flying in all directions "This is getting fucking annoying!" he glanced over towards the team leader who was half way through burning a hole clean through a possessed marine's torso. "How long until the breach stabilizes?" there was a short pause as the lead operative ducked under a jagged looking blade as the group thundered past.

"Not long," the armored figure rumbled "Less then an hour at most." the pair snapped of a glance at the black vortex that was slowly developing above them.

"Well isn't that just fucking fantastic." muttered Paramo as the wind picked up once again.

* * *

 _ **Somewhere not to far away:**_

"It looks like our guests are nearly here, how is the welcoming committee coming on?" inquired Saren as he looked away from a lesser demon who was half way through eating the face off some unlucky sod just long enough to stare at an acolyte, who had enough courage left to approach the shadowy figure.

"Yes master, the true believers are pushing them towards the gateway and more and more of the divine beings are returning to their rightful home." stammered the pale skinned human, which was a rather impressive feat given the fact that most of the cultist has been sewed shut. "At the current rate the heavenly path should be established shortly." the imposing looking turian nodded approvingly.

"Good, our true masters will be pleased with your dedication." he said "Now return to the ritual cycle with the others, the critical point is fast approaching." the figure bowed low.

"Yes master." the cultist scuttled away leaving the Saren alone in the churning madness that was enveloping the chamber, but he wasn't left alone for long as the air around him seemed to almost ripple as in the middle of a heat haze.

"You have done well Arterius." a voice like the scrapping of a thousand little nails on slat proclaimed "Our forces on the planet will soon take control of this lump of rock." the former spectre lowered his head slightly in respectfully deference.

"I live to serve." he muttered, there was a sudden, overwhelming stench of brimstone that washed over the lone agent of chaos was almost overwhelmed as the sickening voice seemed to whisper out over his shoulder.

"That is good servant; because your masters have more work for you to attend to." rumbled the unearthly entirety "For the next stage of our plan is ready to begin." there was a brief pause before Saren staggered forward as a wave of unbelievable pain flooded through him, making it feel like someone had replaced his blood with thresher maw acid. "Do not resist!" hissed the haunting tone "Listen and obey for only through pain will your kind ever know peace!" and listen he did as the turian opened his mind to the whispers that where pouring in through his ears.

There was a deluge of information, images and places names that slammed its way into the cult leaders brain; the first outcome of this was a tap tap tap of falling blood as the ex-spectre began bleeding from his eyes and nose, but even so a plan was slowly forming in his mind.

"I understand," he muttered weakly "I will leave for the stronghold at once." the alien staggered up right before making his way towards the private shuttle the cultist had taken over in the early phase of the uprising. He would need to move quickly if the master's plans could be put into effect before their accursed opponents arrayed themselves against him, but for now only time would tell.

* * *

 _ **Somewhere near the power plant:**_

Doom Guy vaulted over a security barricade, his boot demolishing an imp's face in a shower of blood and brain and bone as the operative's momentum drove the opponent backwards into the asphalt with a sickening crunch.

" **Warning; ardent frequency fluctuations stabilizing!** " V.A.G.E's warning came a split-second before the air was filled with the sounds of the damn as a twirling, churning portal formed in the space that the last few floors of the powerplant used to be.

"Ow sweet goddess." muttered Vasir weakly as the rapid response team looked in wordless horror at the nightmare landscape painted in the sky above them. "We're too late."

"We still have time." Rumbled the chief operative unflinchingly as he tightened his grip around the barrel of his weapon. "Keep focused." the remark didn't go down well with those listening.

"We have no time, none at all, we are actually out of time!" snapped Nihlus sharply as he rounded on the armored figure. "We need to leave right now!" but the comment was meet with cold indifference from the rest of the squad.

There was a long moment of silence as the surrounding veterans exchanged knowing looks before turning their attentions back towards the spinning portal once again. "I'll deal with the breach" declared the chief operative in that same unchanging tone that seemed to be his default setting "The rest of you will act as a rear-guard, Agent Vasir you're in charge, fall back when done." the matron nodded grimly before starting to barking out orders to the rest of the team.

" **Predicted expansion of the fissure suggests that this area will be enveloped in the next hour, recommended relocation before that time."** stated V.A.G.A over the team channel " **Also please be made aware that destabilizing the fissure will cause it to collapse, which will release its stored potential energy.** " that caused a few raised eyebrows.

"How much energy are we taking about?" countered Nihlus, a hint of uneasy creeping into his voice.

" **Calculations suggested that at its current diameter the fissure will release between sixty to seventy terajoules of energy upon destabilization.** " the looks that painted themselves across the specialist's faces would have been priceless if they weren't looking down the barrel of the equivalent of an atomic detonation at close range. " **I would suggest rapid evacuation to minimum safe distance.** "

There was nothing but silence or as close to silence as you could get in the middle of a demon invasion, which wasn't help by the slowly increasing sounds of foot falls as the mass of pursuers drew close. "Well that nice to tell us" muttered Vasir as she checked her shotgun. "Bo, go and find us a transport vehicle so we can get the fuck out of here, the rest of you buy him time" the declaration was accompanied by the metallic clack of weapons being primed as the individuals got about their particular tasks.

"So how exactly is he going to seal the breach and get out of the blast zone?" asked the turian as he watched out of the corner of his eye as the armored human dropped into a quick sprint and he vanished into ruined power plant. "Because from the outside it looks like a suicide run." the statement earned him a snort from the krogan next to him who was resting his chain gun on a blackened car.

"Might as well be." he rumbled "The portal is established so the only way to break the connection is to sever it from the anchor point at the source…on the other side of the fissure."

"But that means…" a look of dawning dread spread itself across the spectres plated features as his mind quickly filled in the gaps.

"That he's going to hell, yeah" countered Paramo grimly "And you thought we had it bad."

* * *

 _ **Inside the power plant:**_

" **Statistics suggest that splitting the party is tactically unwise decision.** " declared V.E.G.A's neutral tone echoed out over the comm-link as the armored juggernaut slammed a pinkie demon out of a ruined window, there was a satisfying splat a few moments later, but as always the operative wasn't around to hear it as he pressed onward towards the tear in space. " **Wouldn't it be wise to take at least a degree of back up?** " but the question was meet with an all predictable answer.

"No, this I do best alone. You know what happened to the others." he said before jumping, spinning around and blasting a hell knight in the face with his shotgun before landing and continuing his sprint. "Plot us the quickest route to the breach." there was a brief pause before a hub arrow popped up on his heads up display.

" **Quickest route plotted, please be advised that said route will take you through the largest zones of demonic activate, please plan accordingly.** " there was nothing but the sound of a charging plasma as the steel clad warrior double timed down the corridor.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile outside:**_

"They're pushing on the left flank, stop them!" bellowed Vasir sharply as she smashed a possessed into the concrete in a shower of rust colored gore. "Chan, deal with that fucking sniper!" the woman in question let out a mocking snort as a split second later her assault rifle roared, blowing a melon sized hole through an unlucky enemy's' chest in a brutal display of efficiency.

"Fuck you bitch, I was getting to get him anyway." countered the OSI operative as she blazed away at another wave of twisted abominations that came rushing across the open space that separated the front of the power plant from the rest of the city. Or at least attempted to as the deafening roar as Paramo's chaingun did it's job and cut down the front wave like freshly reaped wheat, sending limbs and chunks of rotting flesh flaying in all directions as the massive rounds decimated the advancing hoard.

"They're not letting up" Muttered the krogan calmly "Whoever is leading them really want us dead." he let go of the trigger moments before the weapons built in overheating subsystems activated.

"Or they want DG dead." grumbled Chan as she ducked under a barrage of fireballs that a group of imps sent hurtling their way. "I'm kind of hoping that the big bad guys really don't care about the rest of us too much." the towering alien operative snorted loudly.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up, their bosses may not know you but I get a feeling that whoever is stupid enough to work for them knows about the OSI." the remark earned him a rather heated glare from his co-worker but before she could deliver a cutting rebuke to the krogan there came a thundering bellow from further down the way as a pair of lumbering silhouettes slowly stomped their way toward the line of defenders, casually crushing the lesser ranks beneath them.

"Spirits what the fuck is that thing?" muttered Nihlus in low horror as the bloated monstrosities let out guttural roars as the leveled what seemed to be biological grown, built in weapons on their arms at the defenders.

Vasir glanced up and cursed loudly as she laid eyes on them. "Well isn't that just lovely they've got mancubus with them." muttered the asari as he tapped on the side of her helmet "Bo I hope you've found a functioning vehicle because the shits really starting to hit the fan." the salarians distracted tones out of her ear peace a few moments later.

"So I gathered, don't worry I found something that'll work but you'll have to deal with those heavy units, I can't risk this thing getting totaled." there was a blast of gun fire over the link "And please for all our sake be professional about it."

"No promises." you could almost hear the grinding of perfectly pristine teeth as the spectre tore her attention away from the rapidly reorganizing hoard. "One of these days I'm gonna skin that fucking amphibian and turn him into boots." but to give Vasir credit she really did manage to rally herself rather spectacularly. "Focus on the mancubi, we need to take them out right now!" the order was quickly followed by every single remaining member of the rapid response team unloaded on the lumbering goliaths.

It didn't do a lot, not really, the rounds slammed into the two hulking monstrosity drilling holes into their corrupted flash and sending black blood splattering all over the ruined road; it only seemed to make the lumbering demons angry as the nearest one raised one of it's embedded arm weapons up until it was pointing at the improvised defensive position.

"Oh fucking hell its lining up, spread the fuck out! Now!" yelled Chan frantically as a split second later a blazing arc of plasma reached out across the gab and sent the specialists staggering in all directions as the wave of blistering heat overtook them.

"I fucking hate these things!?" roared Paramo as he peeled out from where he'd been taking cover as he slammed an armored boot down to get a better anchor point as he flicked a small switch on the side of his chain-gun. "Come. And. Get. Some!" the air almost seemed to ignite in front of the weapon as it let out a deafening roar as the first rounds came thundering out of the barrel and they were quickly followed but a whole lot more as the armament kicked into overdrive as its on board motors spun beyond its recommended setting.

And this time the effects had a positive outcome as the hail of armor piercing rounds ripped the closest mancubus to meaty ribbons as the finger sized slugs tore home, rather understandably its associate didn't take well to that fact and let out an unholy roar before pointing both barrels towards the krogan.

"Para!" But the woman's frantic warning went unanswered as a barrage of burning plasma slammed into the impose operative, ripping through his shields and armor as if it where paper thin plastic and sending the bulky alien crashing into the ground smoking.

"The krogan's down, Chan get him into cover! Nihlus help me kill this fucking freak!" the turian nodded grimly as he readjusted his aim as he slammed two short bursts into the creatures face that sent it stumbling ever so slightly backwards in pain.

Which was all the time the remaining OSI operative needed as she sprinted across the open ground towards the unmoving form of her co-worker, who was still smoking ever so slightly where he lay.

"Come on big guy, come on" muttered the woman as with the help of her suit she dragged the hefty individual to safety behind a nearby wreck before jabbing a self-diagnostic probe into a section of exposed flash. "Don't die on me now" there was a soft whiny as the onboard program when to work injecting a mass of painkillers and an extra strength medigel into the broken and burned body.

"How's he looking Chan?"

"Medigel stabilized him, but it'll take him a few minutes for his natural healing to wake him up, we'll be lucky if he doesn't go into a blood rage." She shouted as Vasir appeared next to her in a blaze of biotic energy.

"We haven't got time for that, get him to the extraction point, Nihlus and I will cover you." the operative nodded distractedly as she started man handling the groaning teammate upright.

"You dealt with those mancubus yet?" muttered Chan as she quickly glanced back over her shoulder just into to she the turian in question duck back behind cover as a ball of ardent energy slammed overhead.

"Working on it!" snarled Nihlus loudly as he returned fire, earning him another roar of pain from the hulking aberration as a good section its face was torn away as its natural armor failed. "Fucking die!" his roar seemed to have the desired effect as a few moments later the towering opponent toppled over, rotten blood spilling free from what was left of it's ruined features, but whatever sense of accomplishment should have followed such an outcome was quickly crushed as almost on command the waiting hoard of lesser creatures surged forwards in one seemingly unstoppable mass.

"Fall back, fall back now!" demined the asari matron franticly as she started backpedalling, shotgun blazing as the first few imps came rushing over the security barricade, their fists aflame.

Just when it looked like it was all over there came a thundering bellow of a truck horn as what looked like a flying rust bucket of a garbage truck came crashing out of nowhere, smashing possessed and demons alike under wheel as it came to a ground shaking halt a few meters away from everyone.

"We are leaving people!" bellowed Bo as he stuck his head out of the driver side window.

* * *

[CITADEL COUNCIL CENTRAL ARCHIVES: ACCESS GRANTED]

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[DATA REQUEST RECEIVED: SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED]

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[SECURITY CLEARANCE RECEIVED]

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[DATA REQUEST INITIATED]

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[ARCHIVE SEARCH RESULTS]

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[Transcript of Audio Recording of Witness Interview and Character Evaluation: Part 2]

[Date Stamp: 08/06/2177CE]

[Subject: Paramo Ganar, Ganar clan warrior]

[Interviewer: Office of Special Investigations Operations Officer Sillia Bellidos]

[Assistant Interviewer: Office of Special Investigations Operative "Doom Guy"]

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[Operations Officer Bellidos]: Please state your name for the record. [sound of heavy metal chains being jangled vigorously and low crawling]

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: Sir this will all go a lot smoother if you just…. [loud roaring and the sounds of metal breaking]

[Paramo Ganar]: I will rip your spine out of your body and beat you to death with it! [sound of the interviewer sighing]

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: Sir if you will not cooperate with me then you have to cooperate with my associate.

[Paramo Ganar]: I won't be intimidated by such pathetic species! [resigned sigh from the interviewer]

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: [sound of button being pressed] please send him in would you. [sound of doorway opening and heavy footsteps]

[Paramo Ganar]: do your worst human as if I'll be broken by…[sound of a fist hitting flash, followed by sounds of a chair braking and pained roaring from the interviewee, quickly followed by the sounds of an arm bone being broken]

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[A FEW MINUETS LATER]

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: Please state your name for the record.

[Paramo Ganar]: [sounds of low groaning and coughing] Paramo Ganar.

[Operations Officer Bellidos]: Good [slight pause] Do you know why you are here?

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[SECURITY CLEARANCE TERMINATED]

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[DATA REQUEST DENIED]

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[ARCHIVE SEARCH CANCELED]

* * *

 **I know this has taken a long time to come out but its due to a lot of things coming home to nest at the same time, I do hope you liked the chapter and keep reading for the next one.**

 **As always [ _PLEASE READ AND REVIEW_ ] it help me a lot and keeps me going, so if you enjoy please leave a review.**

 **Thank you all for reading and I'll see you all next time.**

 **Gods-Owns**


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